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  • close-up
    close-up
    noun
    a photograph taken at close range or with a long focal-length lens, on a relatively large scale.
  • 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]
Synonyms

close-up

American  
[klohs-uhp] / ˈkloʊsˌʌp /
Or closeup

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.

  3. an intimate view or presentation of anything.

adjective

  1. of or resembling a close-up.

  2. intimate or detailed; close-in.

close-up British  
/ 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
"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

verb

  1. to shut entirely

  2. (intr) to draw together

    the ranks closed up

  3. (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
close up Idioms  

  1. 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]

Etymology

Origin of close-up

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

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.

Close up views showed that new magnetic strands appeared in nearly every image frame, roughly every two seconds or less.

From Science Daily • Jan. 21, 2026

Close up, they have a big-eyed mammalian mien, a rusty collar of chestnut fur and large, inquisitive ears.

From New York Times • Apr. 4, 2023

Close up, the brick wall softened to foam and the New York cityscape flattened, showing its true form as a poster tacked to the wall of a basement in Seattle.

From Seattle Times • Feb. 7, 2023

You can get a close-up look at the controller’s shiny finish and one of the grip patterns in a tweet from Xbox: Close up, far out.

From The Verge • Aug. 3, 2021

Close up, he saw that Stan Shunpike was only a few years older than he was, eighteen or nineteen at most, with large, protruding ears and quite a few pimples.

From "Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban" 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.