How can I get persistent Dictionary popups to go away?

Question

In some applications, such as nvAlt, the Dictionary popup (accessed by double-tapping with three fingers or by using the Look Up command in the context menu) won't go away once called. The only solution I've found to make it close is to quit the program. Is there any way I can do it without quitting the application?

Answer 1

This popover is built into the NSView class (showDefinitionForAttributedString:atPoint:). Since (as far as I can tell) it isn't controlled or powered by a distinct system process, it is completely owned by the app that owns the view where the popover was triggered.

In short, since the popover is owned solely by whatever app triggered it, there's no way to get rid of a stuck one without killing its parent app.

FYI, if the popover isn't dismissed with the escape key or by clicking outside of its body, something has gone wrong. I would file a bug report with the developers of the app where this happens.

Answer 2

In my case the popup came from hovering over a spotlight result and became stuck. Running

killall SystemUIServer

restarted my menu bar and cleared the popup.

Answer 3

Go to Safari--> Preferences --> Notifications --> Remove Quick easy fix