Word.ws English Dictionary

close the books

close the books verb: to finalize the financial records for a specific accounting period; to cease trading.

Verb

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

  1. (idiomatic) To finalize the financial records for a specific accounting period; to cease trading.

Forms of close the books

third-person singular presentcloses the books
present participleclosing the books
past participleclosed the books
pastclosed the books

Questions about close the books

What does close the books mean?
Close the books means to finalize the financial records for a specific accounting period; to cease trading.
What part of speech is close the books?
Close the books is a verb.
What is the past tense of close the books?
The past tense of close the books is closed the books.

Words near close the books in the dictionary

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

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: close the books (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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