closed corporation

American  

noun

1. an incorporated business the stock of which is owned by a small group.

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closed corporation British  

noun

1. Also: close corporation.  a corporation the stock of which is owned by a small number of persons and is rarely traded on the open market

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

closed corporation

The tycoons, who had run the islands for generations as their closed corporation, fought stubbornly and bitterly.

From Time Magazine Archive

When others have tried to board the subsidy liner, "Club 13" has seemed a closed corporation; three applications have been pending before the board for three years or more, with no action.

From Time Magazine Archive

But last week Marshall Field & Co., following the lead of many another closed corporation, decided to let a portion of its stock pass to the public.

From Time Magazine Archive

Those who were inside when the gates slammed have often behaved as if all of Boston were a closed corporation and they the only stockholders.

From Time Magazine Archive

As the years went on she and the boy lived together in a sort of closed corporation paradise of their own.

From Cheerful—By Request by Ferber, Edna