near, as to a common center; adjacent, especially to a city.
The city is enveloping its close-in suburbs.
occurring or provided at close quarters.
Fighter planes provided daring close-in air support.
(of days) to become shorter with the approach of winter
to advance (on) so as to encircle or surround
Surround, enclose, envelop, as in The fog closed in and we couldn't see two yards in front of us , or She felt the room was closing in . [c. 1400]
Also, . Draw in, approach, as in The police closed in on the suspect . [Early 1800s]
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The company said it was seeing particularly strong demand for close-in travel and routes previously operated by Spirit Airlines following the budget airline’s shutdown.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 1, 2026
This suggests that many of these close-in planets may have already been destroyed.
From Science Daily • Apr. 4, 2026
“As always we expect a conservative initial view from Carnival with close-in demand and onboard spending being swing factors on how the quarter unfolds,” he added.
From Barron's • Dec. 18, 2025
One new program offers a credit of up to $250,000 on Portland’s business license tax for employers that sign a new lease downtown or in other close-in neighborhoods.
From Seattle Times • Jan. 23, 2024
Then she found Myers Park, a prosperous, close-in community of 8,700 where most of the houses are more than sixty years old and ten minutes from downtown.
From "Class Matters" by The New York Times
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
