How to Use closely held in a Sentence

closely held

adjective
  • Almost until the very end, the details were closely held and in flux.
    — Austin Weinstein, Fortune, 4 June 2023
  • Centerview remains closely held and has no plans for that to change any time soon.
    — Dana Cimilluca, WSJ, 23 Dec. 2020
  • But such records are not disclosable under that law and are closely held by the agency.
    — Greg Moran, San Diego Union-Tribune, 3 Aug. 2020
  • But not all aides were supportive of the measure, though some kept their criticisms closely held.
    — Author: Rachel Siegel, Josh Dawsey, Mike Debonis, Anchorage Daily News, 23 Dec. 2020
  • Rather than making a splash with an announcement of that total, the campaign has closely held the number for more than a week.
    — Bill Allison, Bloomberg.com, 9 Oct. 2020
  • Also, according to current case law, it should be closely held by the government.
    — Amy Davidson Sorkin, The New Yorker, 18 June 2023
  • The draft reports, all dating from October, had been closely held until this week.
    — Sean Reilly, Science | AAAS, 2 Jan. 2020
  • That's something that the campaign and the Secret Service would keep very closely held.
    — CBS News, 14 July 2024
  • There is no other business so closely held by one family that is also so big and so diversified.
    — Chris Isidore, CNN, 23 Aug. 2019
  • The other social media platforms are closely held by their founders through their companies’ share structures.
    — David Streitfeld, New York Times, 28 Oct. 2022
  • Though the memoir is closely held by the family, Calloway agreed last fall to study it again on my behalf and share some of its contents.
    — Smithsonian Magazine, 17 Mar. 2021
  • Planning appears to have been closely held, even within Ukraine’s own government circles.
    — Michael Kofman, Foreign Affairs, 2 Sep. 2024
  • Industrywide sales figures are closely held.
    — ABC News, 16 May 2026
  • Even then, the indictment was sealed and the information was closely held in Washington.
    — Kevin Sieff, Washington Post, 24 Oct. 2020
  • Those who were involved in the scheme kept the strategy closely held, according to three former campaign officials.
    — Amy Gardner, BostonGlobe.com, 7 Aug. 2023
  • To retrieve and order search results, search engines rely on complex and closely held algorithms that are always evolving.
    — Shawn Boburg, Washington Post, 17 Feb. 2023
  • Though his statements were closely held, DEA officials got wind of them and pushed back vehemently.
    — Tim Golden, ProPublica, 8 Dec. 2022
  • In the cases where an exception is made, the company will now disclose it publicly, the person said - after years of such decisions being closely held.
    — Elizabeth Dwoskin, Anchorage Daily News, 4 June 2021
  • In the cases where an exception is made, the company will now disclose it publicly, the person said — after years of such decisions being closely held.
    — Washington Post, 6 May 2021
  • The newest study, produced last year, is closely held and not circulated outside the industry, but a copy was obtained by The Times.
    — New York Times, 18 June 2022
  • Russia also may be holding back to some extent, for strategic reasons or because the timeline for the invasion was so closely held that cyber teams did not know what to target or when.
    — Washington Post, 26 Feb. 2022
  • This scoop was very, very closely held within the NYT — just like the paper's 2018 Trump tax expose was.
    — Brian Stelter, CNN, 28 Sep. 2020
  • And real power remains closely held among a small circle of Sharaa’s associates and former Tahrir al-Sham members.
    — Sam Heller, Time, 23 Sep. 2025
  • The details, including the key question of who loses under the legislation, have been closely held by party leaders for months in order to keep lobbyists at bay….
    — Ed Kilgore, Daily Intelligencer, 31 Oct. 2017
  • The negotiations were closely held in the White House, with only a limited number of officials aware.
    — Peter Baker, BostonGlobe.com, 13 Aug. 2020
  • The Wisconsin 75 is an annual list of the state's 75 largest private and closely held companies ranked by revenue.
    — Tom Daykin, Journal Sentinel, 27 Sep. 2022
  • The letter itself is closely held, and even some of Cohen’s own advisers don’t have access to it, according to people familiar with the situation.
    — Rohan Goswami, semafor.com, 6 May 2026
  • The program, in which the accounting and consulting firm Deloitte recognizes the state’s largest privately and closely held companies, is now in its 18th year.
    — Tom Daykin, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 17 Nov. 2020
  • Virgin Atlantic, which is closely held, needs to win support from 75% of trade creditors by value, with voting power weighted in favor of those owed the most money, a spokeswoman said.
    — Fabian Graber, Bloomberg.com, 28 Aug. 2020
  • The details of planning for troop reductions in West Africa have been closely held in the Pentagon, and Congress has not been consulted, officials said.
    — Arkansas Online, 25 Dec. 2019

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'closely held.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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