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.
Greenfield Book Store, a mainstay of the city's independent bookshop scene since it opened in 1976, said it would close down when its rental contract ends.
From Barron's ● Jul. 29, 2026
That stock’s forward P/E declined to 14.1 as of Monday’s close, down from 25.3 at the end of last year and from this year’s peak forward P/E of 30.9 on June 1.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 28, 2026
Some dedicated cake shedders say if this happens they could be forced to close down.
From BBC ● Jun. 6, 2026
“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
Me and Lloyd hoped to encourage him to close down the school and drive all formal education out of this part of Parke County.
From "The Teacher’s Funeral" by Richard Peck
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.
