[f. prec. sb.]
1. trans. To shut up or detain in a ‘closet’ (see prec. 1, 2), as for private conference, or secret treaty.
1687. Tramallier, in Magd. Coll. (Oxf. Hist. Soc.), 166. They had closeted the Dr. for about an hour.
1690[?]. Consid. Raising Money, 1–2. Our Constitution was overthrown … by closetting and corrupting Members of Parliament.
1748. Smollett, Rod. Rand., I. 390. She closeted her … and gave her to know that she had seen me.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., II. 217. The king asserted that some of the Churchmen whom he had closeted had offered to make large concessions to the Catholics, on condition that the persecution of the Puritans might go on.
b. esp. in pass., to be closeted with or together.
1749. Fielding, Tom Jones (1775), III. 162. The lawyer and Blifil have been closeted so close lately.
1847. Tennyson, Princess, III. 40. Very like men indeed—And with that woman closeted for hours!
1865. Trollope, Belton Est., xxv. 304. Captain Aylmer and Miss Amedroz were to be closeted together in the little back drawing-room.
1884. Pall Mall Gaz., 5 Sept., 1/1. The Austrian Minister was recently closeted with the German Chancellor.
† c. To discuss or arrange in the closet, to scheme in secret (to do something). Obs.
1624. W. Yonge, Diary (Camden, 1848), 78. He coming out of Spain, they having closeted to detain him.
2. fig. To shut up in any private repository.
1595. T. Edwards, Cephalus (1878), 54. Oh why doth Neptune closet vp my deere?
1633. G. Herbert, Temple, Decay, iv. The heat Of thy great love once spread, as in an urn Doth closet up it self.
