What's the difference between close and nigh?

Close


Definition:

  • (n.) To stop, or fill up, as an opening; to shut; as, to close the eyes; to close a door.
  • (n.) To bring together the parts of; to consolidate; as, to close the ranks of an army; -- often used with up.
  • (n.) To bring to an end or period; to conclude; to complete; to finish; to end; to consummate; as, to close a bargain; to close a course of instruction.
  • (n.) To come or gather around; to inclose; to encompass; to confine.
  • (v. i.) To come together; to unite or coalesce, as the parts of a wound, or parts separated.
  • (v. i.) To end, terminate, or come to a period; as, the debate closed at six o'clock.
  • (v. i.) To grapple; to engage in hand-to-hand fight.
  • (n.) The manner of shutting; the union of parts; junction.
  • (n.) Conclusion; cessation; ending; end.
  • (n.) A grapple in wrestling.
  • (n.) The conclusion of a strain of music; cadence.
  • (n.) A double bar marking the end.
  • (v. t.) An inclosed place; especially, a small field or piece of land surrounded by a wall, hedge, or fence of any kind; -- specifically, the precinct of a cathedral or abbey.
  • (v. t.) A narrow passage leading from a street to a court, and the houses within.
  • (v. t.) The interest which one may have in a piece of ground, even though it is not inclosed.
  • (v. t.) Shut fast; closed; tight; as, a close box.
  • (v. t.) Narrow; confined; as, a close alley; close quarters.
  • (v. t.) Oppressive; without motion or ventilation; causing a feeling of lassitude; -- said of the air, weather, etc.
  • (v. t.) Strictly confined; carefully quarded; as, a close prisoner.
  • (v. t.) Out of the way observation; secluded; secret; hidden.
  • (v. t.) Disposed to keep secrets; secretive; reticent.
  • (v. t.) Having the parts near each other; dense; solid; compact; as applied to bodies; viscous; tenacious; not volatile, as applied to liquids.
  • (v. t.) Concise; to the point; as, close reasoning.
  • (v. t.) Adjoining; near; either in space; time, or thought; -- often followed by to.
  • (v. t.) Short; as, to cut grass or hair close.
  • (v. t.) Intimate; familiar; confidential.
  • (v. t.) Nearly equal; almost evenly balanced; as, a close vote.
  • (v. t.) Difficult to obtain; as, money is close.
  • (v. t.) Parsimonious; stingy.
  • (v. t.) Adhering strictly to a standard or original; exact; strict; as, a close translation.
  • (v. t.) Accurate; careful; precise; also, attentive; undeviating; strict; not wandering; as, a close observer.
  • (v. t.) Uttered with a relatively contracted opening of the mouth, as certain sounds of e and o in French, Italian, and German; -- opposed to open.
  • (adv.) In a close manner.
  • (adv.) Secretly; darkly.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) The presence of lactalbumin was closely associated with the presence of E.R.
  • (2) The suits ensures the conditions for the function of the musculoskeletal apparatus and the cardiovascular system which are close to those on the Earth.
  • (3) It is my desperate hope that we close out of town.” In the book, God publishes his own 'It Getteth Better' video and clarifies his original writings on homosexuality: I remember dictating these lines to Moses; and afterward looking up to find him staring at me in wide-eyed astonishment, and saying, "Thou do knowest that when the Israelites read this, they're going to lose their fucking shit, right?"
  • (4) However, survival was closely related to the severity of the illness at the time of randomization and was not altered by shunting.
  • (5) In the case of nonspecific loading highly trained individuals may have low VT values close to the level characteristic for normal subjects.
  • (6) When the Tunnel closed, Hardee decamped in 1991 to Up The Creek - a slightly better behaved venue in nearby Greenwich, which Hardee described as "the Tunnel with A-levels".
  • (7) The defensive modifications of the functions of the ego itself seen in micropsia are closely allied to those seen in the dèjá vu experience and in depersonalization.
  • (8) The blastocyst antiluteolytic protein therefore closely resembles the interferon-alpha family of antiviral proteins.
  • (9) … or a theatre and concert hall There are a total of 16 ghost stations on the Paris metro; stops that were closed or never opened.
  • (10) Aside from these characteristic findings of HCC, it was important to reveal the following features for the diagnosis of well differentiated type of small HCC: variable thickening or distortion of trabecular structure in association with nuclear crowding, acinar formation, selective cytoplasmic accumulation of Mallory bodies, nuclear abnormalities consisting of thickening of nucleolus, hepatic cords in close contact with bile ducts or blood vessels, and hepatocytes growing in a fibrous environment.
  • (11) Under resting conditions, the variance of cerebral metabolism seems to be primarily related to regions which are closely involved with the limbic system.
  • (12) It was concluded that the spheno-occipital complex has a close relationship to the skeletal facial pattern and contributes to the facial formation.
  • (13) The remaining 5 soil samples, obtained from sites that were not in close proximity to lakes, were also negative except for one that contained type B.
  • (14) Other recommendations for immediate action included a review of the Nursing and Midwifery Council and the General Medical Council for doctors, with possible changes to their structures; the possible transfer of powers to launch criminal prosecutions for care scandals from the Health and Safety Executive to the Care Quality Council; and a new inspection regime, which would focus more closely on how clean, safe and caring hospitals were.
  • (15) Of great influence on the results of measurements are preparation and registration (warm-up-time, amplification, closeness of pressure-system, unhurt catheters), factors relating to equipment and methods (air-bubbles in pressure-system, damping by filters, continuous infusion of the micro-catheter, level of zero-pressure), factors which occur during intravital measurement (pressure-drop along the arteria pulmonalis, influence of normal breathing, great intrapleural pressure changes, pressure damping in the catheter by thrombosis and external disturbances) and last not least positive and negative acceleration forces, which influence the diastolic and systolic pulmonary artery pressure.
  • (16) Only one part of the theory of Alajouanine and colleagues has been confirmed by our experiments for our results have shown that there is a very close correlation between semantic paraphasias and disorders of semantic differentiation whilst no correlation can be found between phonemic paraphasias and disturbances in auditory phonemic discrimination.
  • (17) A remarkably close relationship was found between both H. pylori urease subunits and jack bean (Canavalia ensiformis) urease, the subunit of which is a single 840 amino acid polypeptide.
  • (18) (2) A close correlation between the obesity index and serum GPT was recognized by elevation of the standard partial regression coefficient of serum GPT to obesity index and that of obesity index to serum GPT when the data from all 617 students was analysed in one group.
  • (19) The new trabecular bone closely resembled that typically seen at electrically active implants.
  • (20) Using polyclonal antibodies raised against yeast p34cdc2, we have detected a 36 kd immunoactive polypeptide in macronuclei which binds to Suc1 (p13)-coated beads and closely follows H1 kinase activity.

Nigh


Definition:

  • (superl.) Not distant or remote in place or time; near.
  • (superl.) Not remote in degree, kindred, circumstances, etc.; closely allied; intimate.
  • (a.) In a situation near in place or time, or in the course of events; near.
  • (a.) Almost; nearly; as, he was nigh dead.
  • (v. t. & i.) To draw nigh (to); to approach; to come near.
  • (prep.) Near to; not remote or distant from.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Here was the purveyor of nigh on a third of the nation’s food openly promising a cut that will be barely noticed over time by consumers but will have a positive health impact.
  • (2) He was like the man with staring eyes who stumbled up and down Oxford Street with a placard declaring the end of the world to be nigh.
  • (3) But the deeply idiosyncratic Octopuss font on the station sign is a reminder that ‘77 was also the year of Donna Summer’s I Feel Love and Saturday Night Fever: the end of the world may have been nigh, but one corner of Berlin was boogying the night away to uphold western civilisation.
  • (4) Managing six toddlers is more than a challenge – it's a nigh-on physical impossibility, as my colleague Polly Toynbee pointed out last week.
  • (5) She was one of the most mature users of Twitter and her Twitter feed was so Tayloresque as to be nigh-on parodic, mixing passionate defences of Jackson with shout-outs to reality TV android Kim Kardashian and the occasional – and necessary – denials that she had re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-remarried ("Jason is my dearest friend!"
  • (6) In the era of omnipresent smartphones and tablets, these sacharrine treats are nigh-on inescapable, and as breakthrough hits are guaranteed millions of dollars in revenue (Candy Crush Saga alone generated $1.5bn last year), it's no wonder developers are employing increasingly clever psychological tricks to give their creations a crucial edge.
  • (7) Sue MacGregor presented the Today programme for nigh on 20 years; Peter Allen and Rhod Sharp have been working at 5 live since day one – 28 March 1994.
  • (8) Merkel responded that this was nigh-on impossible since it would require changes to the German constitution and around 10 separate legal changes, the sources said.
  • (9) It is not uncommon for illiberal – in this case, deeply authoritarian – regimes to use a security threat (whether real, imagined, or self-created) as a pretext for singling out alleged ‘traitors’ and cracking down on civil society and individual critics.” Lawyer Khalid Bagirov, who is acting on behalf of all four activists, said the arrests are politically motivated, and added that their acquittal is nigh on “impossible”.
  • (10) And, once the software is made, it's nigh-on impossible to shut down.
  • (11) Is the end nigh for the Department for Communities and Local Government?
  • (12) But just as Oliver Stone has managed to make a boring sequel to Wall Street, despite the real Wall Street's enthralling and nigh-on-cinematic recent wickedness (the inner Freudian torment of boring Shia LaBoeuf's boring character is apparently more interesting to Stone – once the great purveyor of conspiracy theories – than the near-collapse of capitalism), so the makers of the upcoming films about Facebook have missed an obvious trick with their movies.
  • (13) Now, he thinks, Ireland is playing catchup, and the time is nigh to start imagining a post-religion society.
  • (14) These patients all complained difficulty falling asleep; all said they usually slept less than 5 hr a nigh and woke up too early in the morning.
  • (15) It’s embarrassing that Clinton, whose political competence is nigh unparalleled, holds only an uncertain majority over his farcical campaign.
  • (16) If finding an apartment was difficult – a single woman who could afford to pay her own rent was clearly a hooker in the eyes of most landlords – winning serious work proved to be well nigh impossible.
  • (17) The need to change one's eating habits in order to treat a certain disease or a metabolic disorder may seem to impose a well nigh impossible task.
  • (18) Such timings are critical to creditors, and unprecedented January sale discounts were a clear sign that the end was nigh.
  • (19) Bishop said last week’s attack in London reinforced how, although authorities could track terrorist gangs and keep people under surveillance, it was “nigh on impossible” to keep track of individuals who self-radicalised and acted alone.
  • (20) The end is nigh is the consensus, but not that nigh.