to close its doors
17
4.0
- idiom
:
cerrar sus puertas
- Hundreds of schools, offices, shopping malls, and restaurants have closed their doors in anticipation of the hurricane.
Examples
-
When Brobeck closed its doors, it left a number of longtime partners without promised retirement benefits.
Academic text (2005) -
About 100 employees still worked for Jaxon's when it closed its doors Monday.
Blog text (15) -
Well, dear, the agency has closed its doors.
-
Unfortunately, I have to tell you that Health is gonna have to close its doors, effective immediately.
-
Lincoln Street Center for the Arts and Education closed its doors on June 30.
Blog text (2) -
Okay, union leaders, how did that work out when NUMMI closed its doors for good?
Blog text (32) -
Donovan Leisure closed its doors in 1998.
Academic text (2009) -
Equatorial Guinea has not had a national bank since the Credit Bank closed its doors in 1985.
Academic text (2010) -
Since 2001, 56,190 U.S. factories—roughly one in every seven—have closed their doors, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Academic text (2012) -
The local bakery announced that it will close its doors after 30 years of service.
Synonyms
∞
1.0
To close something so it is not open
∞
1.0
To shut something so it is not open
541
2.9
Stop a machine, business, or system from working
94
2.9
To stop operating permanently, like a shop or company
81
5.3
Close a business because it cannot pay its costs
60
4.1
To officially end an organization, agreement, or relationship
44
3.5
To stop a shop or business from operating
43
4.3
To stop being a group, for example a band or committee
11
3.9
To stop doing business for a short time or forever
3
4.3
Sell all remaining stock at low prices to end a business
1
4.4
Close a shop or business and stop trading
1
4.7
Close a shop for the day or forever
Antonyms
How Operational
- US
2
3.5
17
4.0
11
3.9
141
3.9
510
3.2
Surface Forms
Morphology
The sense 'to permanently cease operations' is directly inferable from combining 'close' (to bring an event or process to an end) with 'doors' (the physical entrances of a business, metaphorically its point of operation). This physical-to-figurative mapping (shutting the doors = stopping business) is common and predictable across languages, so a B1 learner who knows the constituents will likely understand the meaning.
Etymology
The phrase close its doors comes from the image of a shop shutting and locking its doors and never opening them again. That's why it means 'to go out of business' or 'to permanently stop operating'.