Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
to seek closure

to seek closure

1 7.0
Try to feel better after a painful or upsetting event
  • phrasal verb
  • /siːk ˈkloʊʒər/
translation icon : buscar cierre
  • He attended the memorial service to seek closure for the loss of his beloved pet.

So is that were you also just a little bit seeking closure of some kind?

Examples

  • Many people find it helpful to seek closure after a breakup by discussing their feelings with friends.

  • So is that were you also just a little bit seeking closure of some kind?

    Lex Fridman

  • Then you're not seeking closure, you're seeking revenge... ...and there's a big fucking difference, sweetheart.

    Fight Valley (2016)

  • Autobiographers seek closure, so that even when, like Ruskin and Henry James, they do not manage to finish their autobiographies, they may still claim to have felt its imminence.

    Academic text (1995)

  • After the accident, she talked to a therapist to help her seek closure and move on.

Antonyms

to live in the past
19 6.4

To keep thinking about the past and miss what is happening now

How Resolved

to seek closure
1 7.0
to acknowledge
286 3.9

Surface Forms

seek infinitive
seeking present participle
seeks third person singular
sought past
sought past participle

Morphology

seek + closure

The meaning 'to try to achieve a sense of emotional resolution' is directly derived from combining 'seek' (to try to obtain) with 'closure' (a sense of psychological resolution). Although 'closure' is a somewhat specialized noun, the verb+noun composition is straightforward and cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents can infer the MWE's meaning.

Etymology

Seek closure The verb phrase seek closure uses the image of seek, meaning to look for, and closure, meaning a final closing. Imagine shutting a door or letting a wound heal so the pain stops. That's why it means 'to try to feel finished with a painful event'.