closely

From close +‎ -ly.

• IPA^(key): /ˈkləʊsliː/

• Audio (US):

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closely (comparative closelier or more closely, superlative closeliest or most closely)

1. In a close manner.

   Finnish and Estonian are closely related languages.

   The borderline between East and West Berlin was very closely guarded.

   The chairs are too closely spaced; could you move them apart?

   • 2012 April 29, Nathan Rabin, “TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “Treehouse of Horror III” (season 4, episode 5; originally aired 10/29/1992)”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name)‎:

     “King Homer” follows the story of King Kong closely, with Mr. Burns taking the freakishly over-sized King Homer from his native Africa, where he lives proud as a simian god, to the United States, where he is an initially impressive but ultimately rather limited Broadway attraction.

2. (obsolete) secretly; privately
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto II”, in The Faerie Queene. , London: [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 28:

     That nought she did but wayle, and often steepe / Her dainty couch with tears which closely she did weepe.

• closely held

• colleys