What is "closing off"

Usage examples of "closing off".

They had no hope of catching the fleeing army until the cavalry had completed the encirclement, closing off all avenues of escape.

Conforming to traditional practice, the EC has raised barriers to protect its own industry and agriculture, thereby closing off the export market that might enable the East bloc to reconstruct its economies.

So I made futile efforts at herding him aboard, closing off his escape whenever he tried to dart past me down the docks.

Something was choking him, closing off his throat so that he could not breathe.

Down from Khyntor, and along the inside wall of the great western mountains, making roads through wild country that had been roadless since the beginning of time - sweeping everything before him, filling Piurifayne with his innumerable troops, closing off the countryside, polluting the sacred streams, trampling the sacred groves.

The left door was bolted into place, closing off half the entrance.