to close one's eyes
- phrasal verb
- To help relieve her stress, she decided to close her eyes and take deep breaths.
Examples
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I closed my eyes and ran to the one place that I've always felt safe, the theater.
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And lay there... until she closed her eyes.
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I see their faces every night when I close my eyes.
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Now, I'm going to close my eyes and count to ten.
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I closed my eyes and tried to peer into the fixture.
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If you feel lightheaded or about to be sick, close your eyes and bow your head towards your knees.
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Just close your eyes.
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If you want to relax for a moment, just close your eyes and listen to the music.
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He closed his eyes and imagined he was on a beach, feeling the warm sun.
Synonyms
To close something so it is not open
To shut your eyelids or ignore a problem and take a risk
To close your eyes for a short time to avoid eye strain
How Closed
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'to shut one's eyes' is directly and transparently composed from 'close' (to shut) + 'one's' (possessive pronoun) + 'eyes' (the organs for vision). This is a literal, compositional action and matches common verb + object patterns found across many languages, so a B1 learner who knows the constituent words will readily infer the MWE meaning.
Etymology
Close one's eyes comes from the simple act of making your eyes close to rest, to imagine, or to stop seeing something. Because shutting your eyes helps you relax or ignore what is happening, it now means 'to shut one's eyes' for rest or 'to ignore' something.