closing time
22
2.2
- noun
:
hora de cierre
- At closing time, all customers need to leave the store as we prepare to close.
- P.M. closing time
- A.M. closing time
- hour until closing time
Examples
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The café usually fills up with customers until just before closing time.
-
Your last chance for a drink before closing time.
Fiction book (2002) -
As it is, right after closing time...
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Ladies, closing time was 15 minutes ago and I really need to lock up.
-
But the students remain, sitting quietly and reading until closing time.
Fiction book (2002) -
At closing time, two young men robbed a supermarket.
-
I stepped into the liquor store two minutes before closing time.
Fiction book (1992) -
When I arrive at the shop, it's one minute past the six-thirty closing time.
Fiction book (1997) -
As usual, the library was beginning to empty with the approach of its nine o'clock closing time.
Fiction book (2001) -
During the Olympics, the museum pushed closing time back from 5:45 p.m. to 10 p.m. to accommodate crowds.
Blog text (10)
How Late
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'the time when a business stops serving customers' is directly and transparently composed from 'closing' (the act/time of bringing something to an end) and 'time' (a specific point or occasion). This straightforward noun+noun compositional pattern is cross-linguistically common and would be immediately understandable to a B1 learner who knows both constituents.
Etymology
Closing time comes from shops and cafes that stop serving customers and lock their doors at a set time, with lights turned off and shutters lowered as the closing action happens. That's why it means 'the time when a place stops serving and closes for the day'.