close-up

or close·up

[ klohs-uhp ]
See synonyms for close-up on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. a photograph taken at close range or with a long focal-length lens, on a relatively large scale.

  2. Also called close shot. Movies, Television. a camera shot taken at a very short distance from the subject, to permit a close and detailed view of an object or action.: Compare long shot (def. 3), medium shot.

  1. an intimate view or presentation of anything.

adjective
  1. of or resembling a close-up.

  2. intimate or detailed; close-in.

Origin of close-up

1
An Americanism first recorded in 1910–15; noun use of adverbial phrase close up

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use close-up in a sentence

  • We stumbled along, close up, for the thick-piled clouds still hung their light-obscuring banners over the sky.

    Raw Gold | Bertrand W. Sinclair
  • You could not see the water till you got close up, and at a distance only the rows of gas jets were apparent.

  • The inner tube has an internal flanch, to which a flat circular plate is screwed to close up the tube.

  • The revelation was made soon after tea, when she sidled close up to him as they paced slowly along the sea-front in the dusk.

  • When they saw the Federals had halted, they also halted, taking time to close up, and that was just what Lawrence wanted.

British Dictionary definitions for close-up

close-up

/ (ˈkləʊsˌʌp) /


noun
  1. a photograph or film or television shot taken at close range

  2. a detailed or intimate view or examination: a close-up of modern society

verbclose up (kləʊz) (adverb)
  1. to shut entirely

  2. (intr) to draw together: the ranks closed up

  1. (intr) (of wounds) to heal completely

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Idioms and Phrases with close-up

close-up

Also, close up shop. Stop doing business, temporarily or permanently; also, stop working. For example, The bank is closing up all its overseas branches, or That's enough work for one day—I'm closing up shop and going home. [Late 1500s]

The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.