Word.ws English Dictionary

close the book on

close the book on verb: to stop worrying about or trying to do something about; to ignore.

Verb

close the book on (third-person singular simple present closes the book on, present participle closing the book on, simple past and past participle closed the book on)

  1. (idiomatic) To stop worrying about or trying to do something about; to ignore.
    • Roth's continued productivity ensures that we can't yet close the book on his career.2011, David Gooblar, The Major Phases of Philip Roth, page 157
    • What greater pleasure for a child than to be able to close the book on all his terrors and go to sleep.2012, J.M Masson, The Oceanic Feeling
  2. (idiomatic) To finish; to bring to an end.
    • We do not presume that our reconstruction will close the book on the evolutionary origins of great ape cognition.2007, Anne E. Russon, David R. Begun, The Evolution of Thought
    • Michael X's execution seemed to close the book on the revolution that rock stars and radicals alike had been awaiting for the previous decade.2009, Peter Doggett, There's a Riot Going On

Forms of close the book on

third-person singular presentcloses the book on
present participleclosing the book on
past participleclosed the book on
pastclosed the book on

Origin of close the book on

By analogy to closing an accounting journal.

Questions about close the book on

What does close the book on mean?
Close the book on means to stop worrying about or trying to do something about; to ignore.
What part of speech is close the book on?
Close the book on is a verb.
What is the past tense of close the book on?
The past tense of close the book on is closed the book on.

Words near close the book on in the dictionary

  1. close stool
  2. close stoole
  3. close stooles
  4. close stools
  5. close the barn door after the horse has bolted
  6. close the book on
  7. close the books
  8. close the door
  9. close the face
  10. close the loop
  11. close the range

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: close the book on (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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