close off

phrasal verb

closed off; closing off; closes off

: to not allow (something) to be used for a period of time : close

The city closed off the beach to tourists.

Half of the museum was closed off while they made the changes.

—sometimes used figuratively

He closes himself off to new experiences.

Examples of close off in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Illinois officials decided to keep all fans on the west side of the stadium, closing off the opposite side, as the two teams battled for the Land of Lincoln Trophy in a rivalry that dates all the way back to 1892. —Cole Sullivan, MSNBC Newsweek, 30 Nov. 2025

Convicted of four counts of felony fraud in 2022 for bilking investors out of hundreds of millions of dollars through her now-defunct Palo Alto blood-testing startup, Holmes lost an appeal earlier this year, closing off potential avenues for early release. —Ethan Baron, Mercury News, 30 Nov. 2025

System updates patch these flaws and close off entry points that attackers use to break in. —Kurt Knutsson, FOXNews.com, 29 Nov. 2025

An Associated Press journalist saw roads leading to the palace closed off, with checkpoints manned by heavily armed and masked soldiers. —NPR, 26 Nov. 2025

Rhymes for close off

• cerenkov
• ashraf
• checkoff
• cutoff
• falloff
• handoff
• kickoff
• layoff
• liftoff
• markoff
• markov
• payoff