Emily Dickinson Lexicon

CLOSE-NESS, n.

1. The state of being shut, pressed together, or united. Hence according to the nature of the thing to which the word is applied.
2. Compactness; solidity; as, the closeness of texture in wood or fossils. – Bacon.
3. Narrowness; straitness; as of a place.
4. Tightness in building, or in apartments, firmness of texture in cloth, &c.
5. Want of ventilation; applied to a close room, or to the air confined in it. – Swift.
6. Confinement or retirement of a person; recluseness; solitude. – Shak.
7. Reserve in intercourse; secrecy; privacy; caution. – Bacon.
8. Covetousness; penuriousness. – Addison.
9. Connection; near union; intimacy, whether of friendship, or of interest; as, the closeness of friendship, or of alliance.
10. Pressure; urgency; variously applied; as, the closeness of an agreement, or of debate; the closeness of a question or inquiry.
11. Adherence to an original; as, the closeness of a version.