close out

Questions about close out

What does close out mean?

close out means "make impossible, especially beforehand". That is the primary sense; the word has 3 in total, listed in full on this page.

What is another word for close out?

Close synonyms include preclude, rule out. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is close out a common word?

close out is banded "Familiar" — widely understood, used when the subject calls for it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.