close down
Britishverb
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to cease or cause to cease operations
the shop closed down
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(tr) sport to mark or move towards (an opposing player) in order to prevent him or her running with the ball or making or receiving a pass
noun
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a closure or stoppage of operations, esp in a factory
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radio television the end of a period of broadcasting, esp late at night
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Also, close one's doors ; shut down . Go out of business, end operations. For example, If the rent goes up we'll have to close down , or After fifty years in business the store finally closed its doors , or The warehouse had a clearance sale the month before it shut down for good . Also see close up , def. 2.
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Force someone to go out of business, as in The police raided the porn shop and closed it down . Both usages date from the early 1900s, but shut down was first recorded in 1877.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“The fact is that we need to close down Men’s Central,” said Peggy Lee Kennedy, one of several callers to the board meeting who urged the county to speed up the closure.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 3, 2026
North Wales Police worked alongside Ofcom to close down the forum used by Cross to search for victims.
From BBC • Jan. 7, 2026
If they close down, it damages the increasingly fragile sense of community.
From Salon • Dec. 18, 2025
Powell’s concern involves a quandary that the Labor Department faces when measuring hiring: how to judge the number of jobs added or destroyed when new businesses are created or close down.
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 11, 2025
It was a huge effort now to close down the visions that were forcing themselves upon him, but he knew that he would have to resist only a little longer.
From "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" by J.K. Rowling
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.
