Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To cause to become closed; obstruct.
  • intransitive verb To prevent the passage of.
  • intransitive verb Chemistry To absorb or adsorb and retain (a substance).
  • intransitive verb To force (air) upward from the earth's surface, as when a cold front overtakes and undercuts a warm front.
  • intransitive verb To bring together (the upper and lower teeth) in proper alignment for chewing.
  • intransitive verb To close so that the cusps fit together. Used of the teeth of the upper and lower jaws.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To shut up; close.
  • In physics and chem., to absorb: specifically applied to the absorption of a gas by a metal, such as iron, platinum, or palladium. particularly at a high temperature.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To shut up; to close.
  • transitive verb (Chem.) To take in and retain; to absorb; -- said especially with respect to gases.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb To obstruct, cover, or otherwise block an opening.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb block passage through

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin occlūdere : ob-, intensive pref.; see ob– + claudere, to close.]

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Examples

Comments

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  • This is an interesting one, never heard it before.

    November 15, 2008