shut
Americanverb (used with object)
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shuts,
present (3rd person singular)
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shut,
past participle, past
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shutting
present participle
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to put (a door, cover, etc.) in position to close or obstruct.
- Antonyms:
- open
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to close the doors of (often followed byup ).
to shut up a shop for the night.
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to close (something) by bringing together or folding its parts.
Shut your book. Shut the window!
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to confine; enclose.
to shut a bird into a cage.
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to bar; exclude.
They shut him from their circle.
- Synonyms:
- prohibit
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to cause (a factory, school, etc.) to end or suspend operations, services, or business activity.
He shut his store, sold his house, and moved away.
We're shutting the office for two weeks in June.
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to bolt; bar.
verb (used without object)
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shuts,
present (3rd person singular)
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shut,
past participle, past
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shutting
present participle
adjective
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closed; fastened up.
a shut door.
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Phonetics. checked.
noun
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the act or time of shutting or closing.
-
the line where two pieces of welded metal are united.
verb phrase
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shut off
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to stop the passage of (water, traffic, electricity, etc.); close off.
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to isolate; separate.
an outpost almost completely shut off from civilization.
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shut in
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to enclose.
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to confine, as from illness.
She broke her leg in a fall and has been shut in for several weeks.
-
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shut up
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to imprison; confine.
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to close entirely.
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Informal. to stop talking; become silent (often used as a rude command).
Just sit down and shut up! I thought the neighbors would never shut up and let me sleep.
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Informal. to stop (someone) from talking; silence.
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Informal. (used to express disbelief or astonishment).
You dated her in high school? Shut up!
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shut down
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to close, especially temporarily; end or suspend operations, services, or business activity.
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to stop operating or stop the operation of (a machine).
Did you remember to shut down your computer?
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Informal. Also shut down onupon to hinder; check; stop from doing or saying something.
He appeared on the talk show to shut down his critics.
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Informal. to defeat or outdo.
The team was able to shut down the offense.
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to settle over a place so as to envelop or darken it.
The fog shut down rapidly.
-
-
shut of free of; rid of.
He wished he were shut of all his debts.
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shut out
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to keep from entering; exclude.
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to hide from view.
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to prevent (an opponent or opposing team) from scoring, as in a game of baseball.
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verb
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to move (something) so as to cover an aperture; close
to shut a door
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to close (something) by bringing together the parts
to shut a book
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to close or lock the doors of
to shut up a house
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(tr; foll by in, out, etc) to confine, enclose, or exclude
to shut a child in a room
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(tr) to prevent (a business, etc) from operating
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to ignore deliberately
-
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to refuse to think about
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to render impossible
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adjective
noun
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the act or time of shutting
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the line along which pieces of metal are welded
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slang to get rid of
Synonym Usage
See close.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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shutsimple
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shutssimple
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have shutperfect
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has shutperfect
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am shuttingprogressive
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are shuttingprogressive
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is shuttingprogressive
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have been shuttingperfect progressive
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has been shuttingperfect progressive
Past
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shutsimple
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had shutperfect
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was shuttingprogressive
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were shuttingprogressive
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had been shuttingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of shut
First recorded before 1000; Middle English s(c)hutten, s(c)hetten, s(c)hitten Old English scyttan “to bolt (a door)”; akin to shoot 1
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
At one point, the video feed in the overflow room was shut down after someone violated the court rules and snapped pictures of a cooperating witness testifying that later circulated on social media.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 2, 2026
Spirit Airlines became the poster child of the problems facing discount carriers after it shut down earlier this year.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 1, 2026
Last month, Grossi visited the site in Deir Ezzor in the east, which has been shut for 18 years.
From Barron's ● Sep. 1, 2026
In July 2025, flooding shut Rasuwagadhi for nearly six months.
From BBC ● Sep. 1, 2026
Reaching my bureau, I peer into the mirror and then squeeze my eyes tightly shut.
From "The Brightwood Code" by Monica Hesse
The justices could decide it's too early to hear the case, rule narrowly without touching the Vermont and New York laws -- or make a broad ruling that shuts the doors on them.
From Barron's ● Sep. 1, 2026
The sport will wait for updates, but the likelihood is he shuts it down from here.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 30, 2026
Misuse of therapy speak, or the casual use of clinical psychology terms, is a pervasive problem, and one that therapists note actually shuts down communication, as opposed to improving it.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 18, 2026
"It'll be a couple of weeks after the January window shuts," says former Portsmouth, Blackpool, Oxford and Shrewsbury boss Michael Appleton.
From BBC ● Aug. 3, 2026
He just stands up and walks to his and Mima’s bedroom and shuts the door.
From "Across So Many Seas" by Ruth Behar
This is roughly equivalent to stopping an overflowing bathtub by shutting off the water to the entire apartment building because you cannot get to the faucet.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 31, 2026
Dunleavy said the conditions did not meet the company’s internal standards for shutting off the lines.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 20, 2026
Authorities in Valencia have been shutting down main viewing zones to traffic, citing severe risks of overcrowding and forest fires.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 12, 2026
The couple's nuptials were shrouded in secrecy despite the event shutting down a part of New York City - the most populous city in the US.
From BBC ● Aug. 12, 2026
I imagine it like an iron fence shutting behind him and scaring his horse.
From "Everything Sad Is Untrue" by Daniel Nayeri
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
