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the title:

"Closing Up Shop on a Marriage"

the article:

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/08/style/modern-love-closing-up-shop-on-a-marriage.html

My question about this is:

the main character of this narrative got separated from her husband, so I don't get the "on marriage" part.

not a big text though.

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  • I can't access the source here, but "to close up shop on X* is an "unusual" usage that basically means to end X (to stop using or endorsing X). The narrator is presumably describing how her marriage failed / became "irrelevant".
    – FumbleFingers
    Apr 8 at 18:28
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    In the UK, the more alliterative 'shut up shop' is quite common. "I am not saying that we should shun qualifications and shut up shop on our careers."
    – Michael Harvey
    Apr 9 at 8:47

1 Answer 1

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Close up shop is an idiom that means to end something. It's typically used when referring to a business or business activity.

In this case, the author is referring to a marriage like you might refer to a business arrangement. This usage is very informal and not very common.

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  • The writer of the story is using the idiom in the stronger sense of taking care of the last details before closing permanently and means it as a metaphor for her former marriage: the shared rewards card is the last detail that she cannot bring herself to take care of.
    – djs
    Apr 12 at 16:45

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