Idiom
close the book on
Meaning
To stop worrying about or trying to do something about; to ignore.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“It is time to close the book on this old argument.”
“After years of searching for the lost documents, the team decided to close the book on the investigation.”
“Having finally accepted the failure of his ambitious project, he chose to close the book on his past mistakes and move forward.”
Examples
simple
“It is time to close the book on this old argument.”
contextual
“After years of searching for the lost documents, the team decided to close the book on the investigation.”
complex
“Having finally accepted the failure of his ambitious project, he chose to close the book on his past mistakes and move forward.”
Origin
The idiom arises by analogy to the closing of an accounting journal. Once the entries in a ledger are balanced and the book is shut, the record for that period is considered final and the transaction concluded.
Key words
Related idioms
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