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• closed-door
  closed-door

  adjective

  held in strict privacy; not open to the press or the public.
• closed door
  closed door

  An obstacle or restriction, as in There are no closed doors in the new field of gene therapy . [First half of 1900s]

closed-door

American  

[klohzd-dawr, -dohr] / ˈkloʊzdˈdɔr, -ˈdoʊr /

adjective

1. held in strict privacy; not open to the press or the public.

   a closed-door strategy meeting of banking executives.

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closed-door British  

adjective

1. private; barred to members of the public

   a closed-door meeting

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closed door Idioms  

1. An obstacle or restriction, as in There are no closed doors in the new field of gene therapy . [First half of 1900s]

2. close one's doors . See close down . Also see behind closed doors ; close the door .

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Etymology

Origin of closed-door

First recorded in 1930–35

Example Sentences

In the days following, Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby met with Cardinal Christophe Pierre, the Vatican’s U.S. representative, in a closed-door meeting at the Pentagon, according to reporting from The Free Press.

From Salon • Apr. 9, 2026

The court’s two-sentence order came after the justices’ regular closed-door conference, which was held on Thursday.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 6, 2026

Congresswoman Nancy Mace of South Carolina criticised the troop deployment after defence officials held a closed-door briefing.

From BBC • Mar. 25, 2026

The City Council ran afoul of the Ralph M. Brown Act by approving a plan for removing 9,800 homeless encampments during a closed-door meeting, according to a new ruling.

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 10, 2026

Although the final draft of the document was conspicuously silent on slavery, the subject itself haunted the closed-door debates.

From "Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation" by Joseph J. Ellis