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I found the sentence on quora.com but I cannot figure out the exact meaning of it, specifically the meaning of the verb "close".

If you come home feeling like someone was in your home without a sign of forced entry. You should do this: close a tooth pick between the jamb and the door when you leave be sure to do all entrances. Try to remember that they are there when entering your dwelling.

Looking up Oxford Dictionary, the most probable meaning that I could think of for the verb "close" is as follows:

  • come into contact with (something) so as to encircle and hold it.
    "my fist closed around the weapon."

However, in this sense the verb is intransitive while in the sentence it's transitive so the types don't agree here.

Is there any figure of speech applying here, or just some meaning of the "close" that I don't know of?

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    It's clearly meant to mean "place", "put" or "wedge" a toothpick between the jamb and door. I've never seen it being used to mean this. Personally, I would assume anything on Quora is wrong.
    – ishtar
    Commented Aug 25 at 10:24
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    The direct object used with close is rarely something between the closed object (often a door) and the housing (with a door, the jamb). It's a transferred usage; I'm not sure how idiomatic this one is.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Commented Aug 25 at 12:22
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    I’m voting to close this question because social media is no source of English for copying.
    – Yosef Baskin
    Commented Aug 25 at 12:23
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    See several written instances of "closed it between his..." ...fingers / hands / legs / etc., where closed means enclosed / gripped / held.
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Aug 25 at 15:04
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    @EdwinAshworth In Tinker Tailer, John le Carre refers to the piece of wood (the toothpick here) as "the wedge".
    – ishtar
    Commented Aug 25 at 18:01

1 Answer 1

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The sentence has ellipsis, and is poorly written:

You should do this: When you leave, close [the door on] a tooth pick [that you have placed] between the jamb and the door[.] Be sure to do [this to] all entrances.

This is a basic security hack. When you return, you will be able to tell if the door has been opened or not. If it has been opened, the toothpick will have fallen out.

However, using a toothpick is a poor choice - you should use something less noticeable.

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  • Thank you for your answer and the end note also!
    – Tran Khanh
    Commented Aug 25 at 16:34
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    I don't think this is poorly written, it's just informal. "close ... in" has a well understood colloquial meaning ("if you're not careful, you could close your finger in the car door"). S
    – Ben Bolker
    Commented Aug 25 at 18:00
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    @BenBolker In all honestly, it is poorly written. It may not be "poorly spoken" where gestures, expression and tone can all help. A written answer should be much clearer than the spoken one. It appears that, when properly expressed in writing, the OP understood it, whereas, as written, they did not.
    – Greybeard
    Commented Aug 25 at 20:55
  • "Close the door on a thing" and "Close a thing in the door" are mostly interchangeable in meaning. I can say "I closed my finger in the door" or "I closed the door on my finger" and either will be understood to mean that my finger got caught between the door and the frame while closing the door.
    – barbecue
    Commented Aug 26 at 15:31

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