close-up orig. U.S.
(ˈkləʊsʌp)
[f. close adv. 1 b + up adv.2]
A cinema or television shot taken at short range in order to magnify detail; any photograph taken at short range; also, photography in which the camera is placed very close to the object. Also attrib.
| 1913 E. W. Sargent Technique of Photoplay (ed. 2) ii. 16 A bust is a portrait showing the head and shoulders only, but bust is more definite than close up, which is sometimes used, for close up might also mean a full picture. 1916 Ibid. (ed. 3) 391 A continuous scene broken by close-ups of Hester. 1917 The Cinema 113 The ‘close up’ pictures of..a man with a wound bleeding in his head. 1933 A. Brunel Filmcraft 155 Close-up, abbreviated C.U. An ordinary close-up of a face includes the shoulders and part of the chest. 1937 Discovery May 152/1 A close-up camera was necessary. 1939 War Illustr. 16 Dec. 423 In this page are close-ups of every type of fighter aircraft. 1957 Observer 8 Sept. 11/6 The film, in black-and-white with a surplus of gigantic close-ups, seems more calculated to appeal to American than British audiences. 1958 Times Lit. Suppl. 31 Jan. 56/1 They have been photographed in close-up. |
b. transf. and fig. A detailed or intimate view or examination.
| 1923 A. L. Benson New Henry Ford 323 A ‘Close-up’ of Ford. 1924 Galsworthy White Monkey ii. ix, The world was full of wonderful secrets which everybody kept to themselves without captions or close-ups to give them away! 1926 Joad Babbitt Warren 103 It comes of seeing life as a series of ‘close ups’. 1943 Our Towns iv. 111 The picture so far painted has been a grim one: a close-up of the black spots. |