closed book
1
7.4
- noun
- /kloʊzd bʊk/
- Informal
- This protagonist remains almost a completely closed book.
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Watch on YouTubeAnd memory is just a hand on a closed book that believes, because it must believe that that's how you read.
- And memory is just a hand on a closed book that believes, because it must believe that that's how you read.
Examples
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While Obama is a closed book.
Blog text (18) -
To me, the topic of quantum physics is a closed book that I find difficult to comprehend.
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But you are a closed book to her.
Fiction book (1991) -
And memory is just a hand on a closed book that believes, because it must believe that that's how you read.
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That keeps the mantin matter a closed book.
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It's not necessarily a totally closed book, but it is worth understanding the facilitative and debilitative ways of tracking.
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His feelings about the situation are a closed book to everyone around him.
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After years of silence, her past remains a closed book that few understand.
Synonyms
660
4.7
Something that is hard to understand or explain
375
3.9
A thing people do not understand yet
33
8.1
A person or thing that is mysterious and hard to understand
Antonyms
How Understandable
Surface Forms
Morphology
closed + book
The literal combination 'closed' (shut) + 'book' (a readable object) transparently evokes inaccessibility or unreadability, so a learner could infer that something is not open to inspection. However, extending that image to mean a person or subject is difficult to understand is a metaphorical shift (person-as-book) that is not fully predictable without exposure, so it is only partially transparent.
Etymology
The noun closed book comes from the simple image of a book with its cover shut so you cannot read it. So, if a person or subject is a closed book, they are 'difficult to understand' or 'not known' to others.