From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishclose the book on somethingclose the book on somethingSTOP DOING somethingto stop working on something, especially a police operation, because it is not making any progress Detectives had closed the book on the Hornsey Murders case three years previously. → close
Examples from the Corpus
close the book on something• The police have closed the book on the Hannah Davies case.• Rady made a motion to close the book on the matter.• And, by definitively closing the book on the past, the language of socialism also remains trapped in Stalinism's wreckage. 