Search the Dictionary

Firmly barred or closed.

Fitting the body exactly; setting close, as a garment. Ayliffe.

arriers with loopholes, formerly erected on the deck of a vessel to shelter the men in a close engagement with an enemy's boarders; -- called also close quarters. [Obs.]

A utensil to hold a chamber vessel, for the use of the sick and infirm. It is usually in the form of a box, with a seat and tight cover.

Closemouthed; silent. "Close-tongued treason." Shak.

Covetous; niggardly. Bp. Berkeley. "Closefisted contractors." Hawthorne.

Covetous; penurious; stingy; closefisted. -- Close"hand`ed*ness, n.

Under way and moving as nearly as possible toward the direction from which the wind blows; -- said of a sailing vessel.

In a close manner.

Cautious in speaking; secret; wary; uncommunicative.

To make close. [R.]

The state of being close. Half stifled by the closeness of the room. Swift. We rise not against the piercing judgment of Augustus, nor the extreme caution or closeness of Tiberius. Bacon. An affectation of closeness and covetousness. Addison.

One who, or that which, closes; specifically, a boot closer. See under Boot.

Having all the reefs taken in; -- said of a sail.

A small room or apartment for retirement; a room for privacy. A chair-lumbered closet, just twelve feet by nine. Goldsmith. When thou prayest, enter into thy closet. Matt. vi. 6.

A diminutive of the chevron, containing one fourth of its surface. Couple-closes are generally borne one on each side of a chevron, and the blazoning may then be either a chevron between two couple-closes or chevron cottised.

A mucilagenous secretion of certain birds found as the characteristic ingredient of edible bird's-nests.

Full of heaps.

To unclose; to open; -- applied esp. to eggs in the sense of to hatch. The ostrich layeth her eggs under sand, where the heat of the discloseth them. Bacon.

Represented with wings expanded; -- applied to doves and other birds not of prey. Cussans.