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• open-and-shut
  open-and-shut

  adjective

  immediately obvious upon consideration; easily decided.
• open and shut
  open and shut

  Simple, straightforward, easily solved, as in With three eyewitnesses, the prosecutor said this case was open and shut. This term suggests that one has immediate access to the facts of a situation. [c. 1840]

open-and-shut

American  

[oh-puhn-uhn-shuht] / ˈoʊ pən ənˈʃʌt /

adjective

1. immediately obvious upon consideration; easily decided.

   an open-and-shut case of murder.

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open-and-shut British  

adjective

1. easily decided or solved; obvious

   an open-and-shut case

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open and shut Idioms  

1. Simple, straightforward, easily solved, as in With three eyewitnesses, the prosecutor said this case was open and shut. This term suggests that one has immediate access to the facts of a situation. [c. 1840]

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Etymology

Origin of open-and-shut

An Americanism dating back to 1835–45

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Explanation

Anything open-and-shut is straightforward and obvious. Lawyers and detectives love an open-and-shut case because it’s easy to resolve. TV crime shows don’t have a lot of open-and-shut cases because they’re no fun to figure out. Police detectives working on an open-and-shut bank robbery case have no doubt about who the thief is, and they may even know exactly where he's hiding out. An open-and-shut case of workplace discrimination is easy to prove, and the bosses are going to get in big trouble. An open-and-shut case is so obvious that it doesn't take long to wrap it up and move on to the next one. This American English phrase was first used in 1840s New Orleans.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

open-and-shut open and shut

For years, the demise of the American mall felt like an open-and-shut case.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 14, 2026

That made this an open-and-shut case, except nothing’s ever that way with Musk.

From Slate ● Jun. 5, 2026

The saddest of operas, “Ainadamar” is not a tragic opera, not an opera of open-and-shut endings, but one of open-ended endings.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 9, 2025

It is not an open-and-shut case at all.

From Salon ● May 15, 2024

We felt like the case was open-and-shut, but then one day, after a month or so, we got a call that he’d made bail.

From "Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood" by Trevor Noah

The agency says it has an open and shut case.

From Barron's ● Jan. 16, 2026

“It was an open and shut case. The evidence was just irrefutable.”

From BBC ● Nov. 23, 2024

Yet this does not mean that the matter is open and shut.

From Salon ● Jul. 14, 2023

“This should be an open and shut case,” Rakim Brooks, the president of Alliance for Justice, an association of groups focused on creating a more progressive federal judiciary, said in an interview.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 28, 2023

I really think this is one of those open and shut things.

From "Twelve Angry Men" by Reginald Rose

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