Closed

Part of speech: adjective

Pronunciation: /kləʊzd/

Definitions

1. Not open or accessible; finished or completed; having ended operations or business for a period
2. Shut or sealed off from entry or use; concluded or finalized; no longer available to the public or shut down temporarily
3. Barred or fastened to prevent access; brought to an end or wrapped up; ceasing activity or no longer functioning at a certain time

Etymology: "Closed" is the past participle of "close" used as an adjective, and the verb's history runs back to a Latin word for barring a door. Latin "claudere" meant "to bar, block, close, enclose," and its past participle "clausus" meant "shut up." That participle passed into Old French as "clos," meaning "close, confined," and English borrowed it in the Middle English period as an adjective meaning shut up, confined, or secret. The image of a barred gate sits behind the whole family of words. The verb has an older English rival that dropped away. Old English "lūcan" meant "to close, lock, enclose," and it is the ancestor of the modern "lock." Middle English "closen" took over much of that territory, partly from the native Old English "clȳsan" and partly from the French-derived adjective, so "close" as a verb ended up carrying both inherited and borrowed material. The same Latin root gave English "clause," a doublet of "close." Both words descend from "clausum," but "clause" entered English directly as a term for a sentence-part or formal stipulation, while "close" came through French and stayed closer to the physical sense of shutting something in.

Synonyms: shut, sealed, barred

Antonyms: open, unlocked