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

The whole represented a closed corporation of intimacies into which she could no more force her way than a worm into a billiard ball.

From Project Gutenberg

Generally speaking, we have been a sort of closed corporation, a board of five, with each one given a vote and the right to cast it.

From Project Gutenberg

A new scholarship boy had one day been assigned to the closed corporation of our particular class-room.

From Project Gutenberg

Gunnery was a closed corporation, and the gunner himself a guildsman.

From Project Gutenberg

With only his model to prove his claims, the inventor had managed to sell all the stock; and from the very beginning the operations would be carried out by a closed corporation.

From Project Gutenberg