shut
Americanverb (used with object)
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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)
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.
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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.
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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:
In the NHL, owners shut down an entire season to get a salary cap.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 28, 2026
But they’re also being shut down at a record pace.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 28, 2026
Around 220,000 people have been evacuated in the region, with 45 campsites forced to shut, ruining the holiday plans of around 40,000 people.
From Barron's ● Jul. 27, 2026
New York City officials halted construction at 222 Broadway, marking the second office-to-apartment conversion project shut down this month.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 27, 2026
Shakily, he daubed circles on his heels, breastbone and forehead, As he finished the one on his forehead, he shut his eyes.
From "Wolf Brother" by Michelle Paver
The CCA shuts its doors in January after the organisation went into liquidation with the loss of all jobs.
From BBC ● Jul. 13, 2026
That only lasts for one season before the nonprofit shuts down, thrusting both into the big, bad world.
From Salon ● Jul. 1, 2026
When the job market shuts them out, many are forced to permanently exit the workforce and prematurely tap into Social Security, or drain the nest eggs they explicitly saved for their 70s and 80s.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 19, 2026
His alarm clock, a big and bulky machine that’s Bluetooth-connected to the house’s fire alarm, rattles his room until he finally shuts it off.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 11, 2026
The judge shuts down the school when he hears what John's been teaching.
From "Just Mercy" by Bryan Stevenson
Lifted by a spirited second-quarter showing, Mayo emerged for the second half and continued to rattle Kerry, shutting down space and flooding forward in numbers.
From BBC ● Jul. 26, 2026
This time the US Secret Service is taking no chances, shutting down a swathe of Washington and throwing up a huge security cordon to ensure the White House dinner 2.0 passes off safely.
From Barron's ● Jul. 24, 2026
Many are borrowed from other thinkers—Stephen Covey on time management, Bob Sutton on shutting down bullies, Amy Edmondson on psychological safety—but all are practical.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 2026
And as the company moves past temporary merger-related costs like shutting down redundant stores and networks, EPS will be even stronger as the years go on, T-Mobile CFO Peter Osvaldik told MarketWatch.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 23, 2026
The Secret Service had cleared everything out, shutting down an entire section of Lake Shore Drive, blocking every intersection along the route—a standard precaution for a president, we’d soon learn.
From "Becoming" by Michelle Obama
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.
