closer

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈkləʊ.sə/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈkloʊ.sɚ/

  • Audio (US)

    (file)

  • Audio (US)

    (file)

• Rhymes: -əʊsə(ɹ), (General American) -oʊsə(ɹ)

closer

1. comparative form of close: more close
   • 1976, Sidney L. Greenblatt, editor, The People of Taihang‎, White Plains, NY: International Arts and Sciences Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 168:

     In the spring of 1938 the Japanese imperialists invaded Yü-tz'u and T'ai-ku in Shansi. Everyone was in panic as the flames of war came closer and closer to Hsiang-yüan hsien.

   • 2013 July 20, “Welcome to the plastisphere”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845:

     [The researchers] noticed many of their pieces of [plastic marine] debris sported surface pits around two microns across. Such pits are about the size of a bacterial cell. Closer examination showed that some of these pits did, indeed, contain bacteria, […].

2. Within a shorter distance.

   Come closer, my dear.

From Middle English closere, equivalent to close (verb) +‎ -er.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈkləʊ.zɚ/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈkloʊ.zɚ/

  • Audio (US), noun

    (file)

• Rhymes: -əʊzə(ɹ), (General American) -oʊzə(ɹ)

closer (plural closers)

1. Someone or something that closes.

   In our organization, the VP of Sales usually acts as the closer.

2. Someone or something that concludes.

   The DJ chose a fantastic track as his closer at the end of the night.

3. (sales) Synonym of close (“the point at the end of a sales pitch when the consumer is asked to buy”)
4. The last stone in a horizontal course, if smaller than the others; a piece of brick finishing a course.
   • 1852, Notes on Building and Road-making:

     The longitudinal bond of the walls is only 24 inches, or one fourth of the length of a brick of 9 inches, and is obtained by introducing closers 24 inches broad

5. (baseball) A relief pitcher who specializes in getting the last three outs of the game. See Wikipedia:closer (baseball)

   They brought their closer in for the ninth.

• Cloers, Clores, Corles, ceorls, cresol, escrol, sclero-