Forms: 3–6 clos, 4– close. Also 4–5 cloos, 5 cloyse, clooce, 5–7 closse, 9 dial. clos, pl. closen, Sc. 6 cloce, 6–7 clois(s, 8– closs. [a. F. clos:—L. clausum closed place, enclosure. Pronunciation and spelling as in the adj.]
I. 1. gen. An enclosed place, an enclosure.
1297. R. Glouc. (1724), 7. Babes þer beþ fele in þe clos & in þe stret.
c. 1325. Coer de L., 3098. Kyng Richard … walkyd abouten in the clos [rhyme aros].
c. 1460. Pol. Rel. & L. Poems (1866), 81. The hevynly kyng enteryd thy close virgynalle.
c. 1500. Melusine, 267. He … camme to the barryers of the clos.
1647. Sprigge, Anglia Rediv., II. iv. (1854), 106. Moving up and down in the closes before the royal fort.
1841–4. Emerson, Ess., Ser. II. iii. (1876), 82. The universe is a close or pound.
1842. Tennyson, St. S. Stylites, 73. I lay Pent in a roofless close of ragged stones.
† b. In close: in a closed place; in confinement, closed up, shut up.
c. 1340. Cursor M., 8770 (Trin.). Þe tre … bigon to driȝe And semed wel bi þat purpos Men shulde no more hit holde in clos.
1393. Gower, Conf., I. 100. This knight on daies brode In close him held.
1540. Hyrde, trans. Vives’ Instr. Chr. Wom. (1592), T iij b. She … kept hir displeasure in close.
1626. Bacon, Sylva, § 99. This Distillation in close … like the Wombs and Matrices of Living Creatures.
c. Law. Breaking one’s close (law L. clausum frangere): see quot.
[1465. Year Bk. 4 Edw. IV. 8. 9. Quare vi et armis clausum fregit.]
1817. W. Selwyn, Law Nisi Prius, II. 1216. The land of every owner or occupier is enclosed and set apart from that of his neighbour, either by a visible and tangible fence … or by an ideal invisible boundary…. Hence every unwarrantable entry upon the land of another is termed a trespass by breaking his close.
1842. Tennyson, Edw. Morris. It seems I broke a close with force and arms.
2. In many senses more or less specific: as, An enclosed field. (Now chiefly local, in the English midlands.)
c. 1440. Gesta Rom., lxx. 386 (Add. MS.). Thou haste stolne hym [the horse], and putt hym in thi close.
1479. Bury Wills (1850), 52. A cloos called Scottes cloos, lying by the … cloos of Willam Brygges called Blabettys.
1526. Tindale, Matt. xiii. 27. Sowedest not thou good seed in thy closse?
1546. Mem. Ripon (Surtees), III. 21. One cloise ther in the tenure of Edmonde Chambre.
1564. Haward, Eutropius, I. 9. Seized of a close or field.
1712. Arbuthnot, John Bull (1755), 55. We measured the corn fields, close by close.
1821. Clare, Vill. Minstr., I. 72. Closes green and fallows brown.
1879. Miss Jackson, Shropsh. Word-bk., Clos.
1881. Leicestersh. Gloss. (E. D. S.), Close, pl. Closen.
3. An enclosure about or beside a building; a court, yard, quadrangle, etc. † a. gen. Obs.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 83. Cloos, or yerde, clausura.
1480. Caxton, Chron. Eng., ccviii. 190. That bisshop had in london a fayre toure in makynge in his close vpon the riuer of the thamyse.
1641. Evelyn, Mem. (1857), I. 39. In the court next it are kept divers sorts of animals…. In another division of the same close are rabbits.
1646. Z. Boyd, in Zion’s Flowers (1855), App. 31/1. The Second Entrie whereby we enter into the Secund Cloiss [i.e., quadrangle].
b. A farm-yard. Now in Kent, Sussex, Scotl.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Nun’s Pr. T., 540. Alle the hennes in the clos [v.r. cloos, close].
1585. James I., Ess. Poesie (Arb.), 45. When it grew lait, she made them flie, but doubt, Or feare, euen in the closse with her.
1637. Rutherford, Lett., No. 157 (1862), I. 361. The outer close of His house, His out-fields and muir-ground.
1796. Pegge, Anonym. (1809), 369. The farm-yard, in Kent, is called the Close.
1858. M. Porteous, Souter Johnny, 17. [Ballochneil old farm-house] … on the opposite side of the ‘closs’ or courtyard of the steading.
1875. Sussex Gloss., Close, a farm-yard.
c. The precinct of a cathedral. Hence sometimes = The cathedral clergy.
1371. in J. Britton, Cathedrals, York, 80. Inwith þe close bysyde þe forsayde Kyrk.
c. 1430. Chev. Assigne, 272. Alle þe bellys of þe close rongen at ones.
a. 1587. Foxe, A. & M. (1596), 711. The Bishop and the close, were the more loth to burne him.
1587. Harrison, England, II. ii. (1877), I. 50. He [bishop Langton] began their close, and bestowed much in building the same.
c. 1630. Risdon, Surv. Devon, § 107 (1811), 108–9. The church yard, called the Close, for that they are inclosed by certain gates.
1724. De Foe, Mem. Cavalier (1840), 198. The earl … set upon Lichfield,… but could not take the close.
1848. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., I. 340. Closes surrounded by the venerable abodes of deans and canons.
† d. The precinct of any sacred place; a cloister.
c. 1449. Pecock, Repr., 550. It is alloweable and profitable that Lordis & Ladies haue Mansiouns with inne the Cloocis Gatis & Monasteries of the begging religiouns.
c. 1450[?]. Castle Howard MS. Life St. Cuthbert, 333. Þat he be getyn men suppose In hordome here within þis close.
1547. Act 1 Edw. VI., c. 14 § 19 (8). Such like Chapel whereunto … a little House or Close doth belong.
1601. Holland, Pliny, II. 570. The chappels that are within the close or cloister belonging to the galleries of Octavia.
1628. Hobbes, Thucyd., I. (1629), 71. [Pausanias] ranne into the Close of the Temple of Pallas Chalciæca.
† e. See quot. Obs.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 83. Cloos, lybrary, archyvum.
4. An entry or passage. Now, in Scotland, esp. one leading from the street to dwelling houses, out-houses, or stables, at the back, or to a common stair communicating with the different floors or ‘flats’ of the building. Also variously extended to include the common stair, the open lane or alley, or the court, to which such an entry leads.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 301. A þre hedet hounde … was keper of the close of þat curset In. Ibid., 11264. Þai kepyn the cloyse of this clene burgh, With ȝep men at þe yatis ȝarkit full þik. Ibid., 12982. So keppit he the close of his clene Cité.
1525. Aberdeen Reg. (Jam.), Cloiss.
a. 1572. Knox, Hist. Ref., Wks. 1846, I. 175. Thei address thame to the myddest of the close.
a. 1583. Sempill Ballates, 70. Tint be ane Tratour, steilling vp ane close.
1650. Row, Hist. Kirk (1842), 495. They resolved to preach in the Earle of Marshall’s closse or hall, according as the weather should rule.
c. 1730. Burt, Lett. N. Scotl. (1818), I. 56. [In Inverness] a little court, or turn-again alley, is a closs.
c. 1737. in Scott, Hrt. Midl., vii. note. A blind alehouse in the Flesh-market closs.
1764. Reid, Lett., Wks. I. 40/1. A long, dark … entry, which leads you into a clean little close.
1853. Reade, Chr. Johnstone, 46. At the very entrance of Newhaven … they ascended a filthy ‘close’ or alley.
1889. Glasgow Wkly. Mail, 17 Aug., 3/2. A close at 3 Salisbury Street, Glasgow.
b. Hence, close-head, -mouth.
1818. Scott, Hrt. Midl., v. ‘That … chield there, without muckle greater parts, if the close-head speak true, than mysell.’
1821. Joseph the Book-Man, 83.
| By strands and close-heads traders stand | |
| And small wares quickly sell off hand. |
† 5. A mountain defile or pass. Obs.
a. 1400[?]. Morte Arth., 1639. Here es þe close of Clyme with clewes so hye.
a. 1550[?]. Scotish ffielde, in Furniv., Percy Folio, I. 225. He was killed in the close, ere he climbed the mountaine.
† II. 6. An enclosing line, boundary, circuit, pale. Obs.
c. 1330. R. Brunne, Chron. (1810), 160. Lymosoun, A cite large in clos.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 83. Cloos, or boundys of a place, ceptum, ambitus.
1502. Arnolde, Chron., 169. The closse of thy orcharde wolde be set about with other highe trees.
c. 1645. Howell, Lett. (1650), II. 12. They are not within the close of her fold.
