jQuery closest() method

jQuery closest() method works by first looking at the current element to see if it matches the specified expression, if so it just returns the element itself. If it doesn’t match then it will continue to traverse up the document, parent by parent, until an element is found that matches the specified expression. If no matching element is found then none will be returned.
Passing in a context will typically make your closest() calls much faster.
Example:
$(‘input[type="button"]‘).click(function() {
     $(this).closest(‘li’).fadeOut();
});