close down

close down idiom
  1. Also, close one's doors; shut down. Go out of business, end operations. For example, If the rent goes up we'll have to close down, or After fifty years in business the store finally closed its doors, or The warehouse had a clearance sale the month before it shut down for good. Also see close up, def. 2.
  2. Force someone to go out of business, as in The police raided the porn shop and closed it down. Both usages date from the early 1900s, but shut down was first recorded in 1877.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

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