close out

See also: closeout

English

Verb

close out (third-person singular simple present closes out, present participle closing out, simple past and past participle closed out)

1. (transitive) To terminate; to call the end of.
   • 2011 June 28, Piers Newbery, “Wimbledon 2011: Sabine Lisicki beats Marion Bartoli”, in BBC Sport‎:

     Lisicki recovered quickly enough and broke once again at 1-1, using her heavy to serve to dominate before a sweetly-struck backhand down the line closed out the set after 43 minutes.

2. (transitive, marketing) Synonym of close (“to make a sale”).
   • 2017, Paul T. Steele, Tom Beasor, Business Negotiation: A Practical Workbook:

     Sales people are taught how to close out the deal. Buyers are less well trained but protect themselves with processes that stop the seller from reaching this stage.

3. (intransitive) To settle, to pay what is due.
   • 2025 May 31, Paula Mejía, “Gen Z Doesn’t Want to Start a Bar Tab”, in The New York Times‎, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC:

     Much to the dismay of bartenders, many 20-somethings prefer to close out and pay after every drink, no matter how many beverages they end up ordering.

     (Can we archive this URL?)

4. (surfing, of a wave) To break all at once, instead of progressively along its length.
   • 2005, Pete Devries, “PD's Trick Tips”, in Surfing Vancouver Island‎, archived from the original on 11 May 2006:

     You either want to land on the top of the wave (if it has closed out), or in the transition

5. (computing) To terminate a computer program.

   Antonym: open up

6. (transitive) To exclude by blocking all opportunities to enter or join.
   • 2013 October 15, Daniel Taylor, “Steven Gerrard goal against Poland ensures England will go to World Cup”, in The Guardian‎:

     Gerrard plainly had other ideas as he set off on that final, driving run into the opposition penalty area, slaloming between Kamil Glik and Grzegorz Wojtkowiak and getting his shot away as a third defender, Artur Jedzejczyk, and the goalkeeper, Wojciech Szczesny, tried to close him out.

7. (finance) To make trades offsetting an existing position, leaving the trader with a neutral position.
8. (aerospace) To seal off.
   • 2008, R. Michael Gordon, The Space Shuttle Program: How NASA Lost Its Way, page 192:

     One week later, the new Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS-C) was loaded on Discovery and the payload bay doors were cleared and closed out.

Usage notes

In computing sense, close and close out are both used, with close out being more informal, and more connotation of completely (as opposed to terminating a single window or document). Compare other computing phrasal verbs such as save down and print out.

Derived terms

• closeout (noun)

Related terms

• close down
• close off
• close up

Anagrams

• cosolute, cut loose, octulose