different between close vs limit

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English closen (“to close, enclose”), partly continuing (in altered form) earlier Middle English clusen (“to close”) (from Old English cl?san (“to close, shut”); compare beclose, foreclose, etc.), and partly derived from Middle English clos (“close, shut up, confined, secret”, adjective), from Old French clos (“close, confined”, adjective), from Latin clausus (“shut up”, past participle), from claudere (“to bar, block, close, enclose, bring an end to, confine”), from Proto-Indo-European *kl?w- (“key, hook, nail”), related to Latin cl?vis (“key, deadbolt, bar”), cl?vus (“nail, peg”), claustrum (“bar, bolt, barrier”), claustra (“dam, wall, barricade, stronghold”). Cognate with Ancient Greek ????? (kleís, “bar, bolt, key”), German schließen (“to close, conclude, lock”), Dutch sluiten (“to close, conclude, lock”). Partially replaced Old English l?can (“to close, lock, enclose”), (whence English lock).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: kl?z, IPA^(key): /kl??z/
• (General American) enPR: kl?z, IPA^(key): /klo?z/
• Rhymes: -??z
• Homophone: clothes (in some dialects)

Verb

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

1. (physical) To remove a gap.
   1. To obstruct (an opening).
   2. To move so that an opening is closed.
      • If I close my eyes I can see Marie today as I saw her then. Round, rosy face, snub nose, dark hair piled up in a chignon.

   3. To make (e.g. a gap) smaller.

   4. To grapple; to engage in close combat.
      • 1856-1858, William H. Prescott, History of the Reign of Phillip II

        They boldly closed in a hand-to-hand contest.

2. (social) To finish, to terminate.
   1. To put an end to; to conclude; to complete; to finish; to consummate.

      • One frugal supper did our studies close.

   2. To come to an end.

   3. (marketing) To make a sale.
   4. (baseball, pitching) To make the final outs, usually three, of a game.

   5. (figuratively, computing) To terminate an application, window, file or database connection, etc.
3. To come or gather around; to enclose; to encompass; to confine.

   • The depth closed me round about.

   • 1633, George Herbert, The Church

     But now Thou dost Thyself immure and close / In some one corner of a feeble heart; / Where yet both Sinne and Satan, Thy old foes, / Do pinch and straiten Thee, and use much art / To gain Thy thirds' and little part.

4. (surveying) To have a vector sum of 0; that is, to form a closed polygon.

Synonyms

• (obstruct (an opening)): close off, close up, cover, shut, shut off
• (move (a door)): shut
• (put an end to): end, finish, terminate, wind up, close down
• (make (a gap) smaller): narrow
• (terminate a computer program): close out, exit

Antonyms

• (obstruct (an opening)): open
• (move (a door)): open
• (put an end to): begin, commence, initiate, start
• (make (a gap) smaller): extend, widen
• (terminate a computer program): open, start

Hyponyms

• autoclose

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Noun

close (plural closes)

1. An end or conclusion.

   We owe them our thanks for bringing the project to a successful close.
2. The manner of shutting; the union of parts; junction.
3. (sales) The point at the end of a sales pitch when the consumer is asked to buy.

   Synonym: closer

   • 1983, Charles B. Roth, ?Roy Alexander, Secrets of Closing Sales (page 110)

     Regardless of the situation, the minute you feel it's time for the close, try it.

4. A grapple in wrestling.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Francis Bacon to this entry?)

5. (music) The conclusion of a strain of music; cadence.

   • At every close she made, the attending throng / Replied, and bore the burden of the song.

6. (music) A double bar marking the end.
7. (aviation, travel) The time when checkin staff will no longer accept passengers for a flight.

Synonyms

• (end): end, finale

Antonyms

• (end): beginning, start

Translations

Etymology 2

Borrowed from French clos, from Latin clausum, participle of claud?.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: kl?s, IPA^(key): /kl??s/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /klo?s/
• Rhymes: -??s

Adjective

close (comparative closer, superlative closest)

2. (now rare) Closed, shut.
   • 1526, William Tyndale, trans. Bible, Matthew chapter 8:

     There is nothinge so close, that shall not be openned, and nothinge so hyd that shall not be knowen.

   • 1830, Thomas Thomson (chemist) The History of Chemistry, Vol. 1, pp. 30-31:

     As the alchymists were assiduous workmen—as they mixed all the metals, salts, &c... and subjected such mixtures to the action of heat in close vessels, their labours were occasionally repaid by the discovery of new substances...

   • 1847, Charlotte Brontë Jane Eyre, chapter 1:

     I mounted into the window-seat: gathering up my feet, I sat cross-legged, like a Turk; and, having drawn the red moreen curtain nearly close, I was shrined in double retirement.

3. Narrow; confined.

   a close alley; close quarters

   • a close prison

4. At a little distance; near.

5. Intimate; well-loved.
   1. (law) Of a corporation or other business entity, closely held.
6. Oppressive; without motion or ventilation; causing a feeling of lassitude.
7. (Ireland, England, Scotland, weather) Hot, humid, with no wind.
9. (linguistics, phonetics, of a vowel) Articulated with the tongue body relatively close to the hard palate.
10. Strictly confined; carefully guarded.

    a close prisoner

11. (obsolete) Out of the way of observation; secluded; secret; hidden.

    • He yet kept himself close because of Saul.
12. Nearly equal; almost evenly balanced.

    a close contest

13. Short.

    to cut grass or hair close

14. (archaic) Dense; solid; compact.
    • 1690, John Locke, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding

      The golden globe being put into a press, [...] the water made itself way through the pores of that very close metal.

15. (archaic) Concise; to the point.

    close reasoning

    • 1690, John Dryden, Translations (Preface)

      Where the original is close no version can reach it in the same compass.

16. (dated) Difficult to obtain.

    Money is close.

    (Can we find and add a quotation of Bartlett to this entry?)

17. (dated) Parsimonious; stingy.
    • 1837, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Twice-Told Tales, Volume I: "Mr. Higginbotham's Catastrophe":

      [...] he was a crusty old fellow, as close as a vice.

    • 1852-1853, Charles Dickens, Bleak House

      Though a hard-grained man, close, dry, and silent, he can enjoy old wine with the best. He has a priceless bin of port in some artful cellar under the Fields, which is one of his many secrets.

18. Adhering strictly to a standard or original; exact.

    a close translation

    (Can we find and add a quotation of Locke to this entry?)

19. Accurate; careful; precise; also, attentive; undeviating; strict.

    The patient was kept under close observation.

20. Marked, evident.

Synonyms

• (at a little distance): close by, near, nearby; see also Thesaurus:near
• (intimate): intimate
• (hot, humid): muggy, oppressive; see also Thesaurus:muggy
• (articulated with the tongue body relatively close to the hard palate): high
• (dense, solid, compact): see also Thesaurus:compact

Antonyms

• (at a little distance): distant, far, faraway, far off, remote; see also Thesaurus:distant
• (intimate): aloof, cool, distant
• (articulated with the tongue body relatively close to the hard palate): open

Hyponyms

• thisclose
• ultra-close

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

close (plural closes)

1. (now rare, chiefly Yorkshire) An enclosed field.
2. (chiefly British) A street that ends in a dead end.
3. (Scotland) A very narrow alley between two buildings, often overhung by one of the buildings above the ground floor.
4. (Scotland) The common staircase in a tenement.
5. A cathedral close.
6. (law) The interest which one may have in a piece of ground, even though it is not enclosed.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Bouvier to this entry?)

Synonyms

• (street): cul-de-sac
• (narrow alley): See Thesaurus:alley

Translations

Descendants

• ? Irish: clós
• ? Welsh: clos

Anagrams

• Coles, coles, socle

French

Pronunciation

Adjective

close

1. feminine singular of clos

Verb

close

1. first-person singular present subjunctive of clore
2. third-person singular present subjunctive of clore

Participle

close

1. feminine singular of the past participle of clore

Anagrams

• socle

Middle English

Noun

close

1. plural of cloth

Portuguese

Noun

close m (plural closes)

1. (photography) close-up (photography in which the subject is shown at a large scale)

   Synonym: close-up

2. attitude

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?l?m?t/
• (India) IPA^(key): /?l?m?t/, /?l?mt/
• Rhymes: -?m?t

Etymology 1

From Middle English limit, from Old French limit, from Latin l?mes (“a cross-path or balk between fields, hence a boundary, boundary line or wall, any path or road, border, limit”).

Noun

limit (plural limits)

1. A restriction; a bound beyond which one may not go.

   There are several existing limits to executive power.

   Two drinks is my limit tonight.

   • 1839, Charles Dickens, Nicholas Nickleby, chapter 21:

     It is the conductor which communicates to the inhabitants of regions beyond its limit […]

   • 1922, James Joyce, Ulysses, episode 17:

     Ever he would wander, selfcompelled, to the extreme limit of his cometary orbit, beyond the fixed stars and variable suns and telescopic planets, astronomical waifs and strays, to the extreme boundary of space […]

   • 2012 March 6, Dan McCrum, Nicole Bullock and Guy Chazan, Financial Times, “Utility buyout loses power in shale gas revolution”:

     At the time, there seemed to be no limit to the size of ever-larger private equity deals, with banks falling over each other to arrange financing on generous terms and to invest money from their own private equity arms.

2. (mathematics) A value to which a sequence converges. Equivalently, the common value of the upper limit and the lower limit of a sequence: if the upper and lower limits are different, then the sequence has no limit (i.e., does not converge).

   The sequence of reciprocals has zero as its limit.

3. (mathematics) Any of several abstractions of this concept of limit.

   Category theory defines a very general concept of limit.

4. (category theory) The cone of a diagram through which any other cone of that same diagram can factor uniquely.

   Synonyms: inverse limit, projective limit

   Hyponyms: terminal object, categorical product, pullback, equalizer, identity morphism

5. (poker) Fixed limit.
6. The final, utmost, or furthest point; the border or edge.

   the limit of a walk, of a town, or of a country
7. (obsolete) The space or thing defined by limits.
8. (obsolete) That which terminates a period of time; hence, the period itself; the full time or extent.
9. (obsolete) A restriction; a check or curb; a hindrance.
10. (logic, metaphysics) A determining feature; a distinguishing characteristic.
11. (cycling) The first group of riders to depart in a handicap race.
12. (colloquial, as "the limit") A person who is exasperating, intolerable, astounding, etc.

Synonyms

• (restriction): bound, boundary, limitation, restriction

Derived terms

Descendants

• German: Limit

Translations

Adjective

limit (not comparable)

1. (poker) Being a fixed limit game.

See also

• bound
• function

Etymology 2

From Middle English limiten, from Old French limiter, from Latin l?mit? (“to bound, limit, fix, determine”), from l?mes; see noun.

Verb

limit (third-person singular simple present limits, present participle limiting, simple past and past participle limited)

1. (transitive) To restrict; not to allow to go beyond a certain bound, to set boundaries.

   • [The Chinese government] has jailed environmental activists and is planning to limit the power of judicial oversight by handing a state-approved body a monopoly over bringing environmental lawsuits.

2. (mathematics, intransitive) To have a limit in a particular set.

3. (obsolete) To beg, or to exercise functions, within a certain limited region.

Synonyms

• (restrict): See Thesaurus:hinder

Translations

Further reading

• limit in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• limit in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• limit at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

• milit.

Czech

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [?l?m?t]

Noun

limit m

1. limit

Related terms

• limita
• limitní
• limitovat

Further reading

• limit in P?íru?ní slovník jazyka ?eského, 1935–1957
• limit in Slovník spisovného jazyka ?eského, 1960–1971, 1989

Hungarian

Etymology

From English limit.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [?limit]
• Hyphenation: li?mit
• Rhymes: -it

Noun

limit (plural limitek)

1. limit (the final, utmost, or furthest point)

Declension

References

Serbo-Croatian

Etymology

From German Limit.

Noun

lìmit m (Cyrillic spelling ?????)

1. boundary
2. boundary that cannot be surpassed

Declension

Tagalog

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?li.mit/

Noun

limit

1. frequency
2. closeness; compactness; density

Synonyms

• kalimitan

Derived terms

• malimit