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CLOSE IN
I. (verb)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Surround completely
Example:
They closed in the porch with a fence
Synonyms:
close in; enclose; inclose; shut in
Classified under:
Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging
Hypernyms (to "close in" is one way to...):
border; environ; ring; skirt; surround (extend on all sides of simultaneously; encircle)
Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "close in"):
hedge; hedge in (enclose or bound in with or as it with a hedge or hedges)
fort; fortify (enclose by or as if by a fortification)
corral (enclose in a corral)
casket (enclose in a casket)
cordon off; rope in; rope off (divide by means of a rope)
fence; fence in (enclose with a fence)
encapsulate (enclose in a capsule or other small container)
dike; dyke (enclose with a dike)
bank (enclose with a bank)
glass; glass in (enclose with glass)
border; frame; frame in (enclose in or as if in a frame)
bury; eat up; immerse; swallow; swallow up (enclose or envelop completely, as if by swallowing)
case; encase; incase (enclose in, or as if in, a case)
enshrine; shrine (enclose in a shrine)
bower; embower (enclose in a bower)
wall in; wall up (enclose with a wall)
insert; tuck (fit snugly into)
Sentence frames:
Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something
Sense 2
Meaning:
Advance or converge on
Example:
The police were closing in on him
Synonyms:
close in; draw in
Classified under:
Verbs of walking, flying, swimming
Hypernyms (to "close in" is one way to...):
advance; go on; march on; move on; pass on; progress (move forward, also in the metaphorical sense)
Verb group:
draw in; get in; move in; pull in (of trains; move into (a station))
Sentence frames:
Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s PP
Context examples:
I stole round by the eastern end, keeping close in shadow, and at a convenient place, where the darkness was thickest, crossed the palisade.
(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
He saw the silent circle, with gleaming eyes, lolling tongues, and silvery breaths drifting upward, closing in upon him as he had seen similar circles close in upon beaten antagonists in the past.
(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)
Demi lay fast asleep, not in his usual spreadeagle attitude, but in a subdued bunch, cuddled close in the circle of his father's arm and holding his father's finger, as if he felt that justice was tempered with mercy, and had gone to sleep a sadder and wiser baby.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
I was, indeed, close in.
(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
In the meantime the supervisor rode on, as fast as he could, to Kitt's Hole; but his men had to dismount and grope down the dingle, leading, and sometimes supporting, their horses, and in continual fear of ambushes; so it was no great matter for surprise that when they got down to the Hole the lugger was already under way, though still close in.
(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
It was sharply different from the West where an evening was hurried from phase to phase toward its close in a continually disappointed anticipation or else in sheer nervous dread of the moment itself.
(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)
