shutter

[shuht-er]

noun

a solid or louvered movable cover for a window.

a movable cover, slide, etc., for an opening.

a person or thing that shuts.

Photography. a mechanical device for opening and closing the aperture of a camera lens to expose film or the like.

verb (used with object)

to close or provide with shutters: She shuttered the windows.

to close (a store or business operations) for the day or permanently.

verb (used without object)

to close or close down: The factory has shuttered temporarily.

Origin of shutter

First recorded in 1535–45; shut + -er¹

Related formsshut·ter·less, adjectiveun·shut·tered, adjective

Can be confusedshudder shutter

Synonym study

1. See curtain.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for shutters

curtain, screen, drape, cover, shade

Examples from the Web for shutters

Contemporary Examples of shutters

Greengrass told the quartet they had the parts at Shutters Hotel in Santa Monica.
Barkhad Abdi: From Limo Driver to Oscar Contender
Tim Teeman
February 23, 2014
On the shutters of a cosmetics store someone has written, “Pepper spray is good for the skin.”
Smiling Under a Cloud of Tear Gas: Elif Shafak on Istanbul’s Streets
Elif Shafak
June 11, 2013
Just taking the shutters down and re-entering the world of daylight was a relief in itself.
Our Visit From Irene
India Hicks
August 27, 2011
But at the house to the right and the house to the left, there are broken windows and shutters.
Does Goldman Sachs Really Rule the World?
William D. Cohan
October 8, 2008

Historical Examples of shutters

To be let light your fire myself every morning, and open your shutters, dear.
Tales And Novels, Volume 4 (of 10)
Maria Edgeworth
But all the doors and shutters were closed and no smoke rose from any chimney.
The Rock of Chickamauga
Joseph A. Altsheler
Physician had opened the shutters of one window while waiting, that he might see the light.
Little Dorrit
Charles Dickens
The Venetian shutters often had to be lowered in the summer to attenuate the great heat.
The Three Cities Trilogy, Complete
Emile Zola
The shutters were thrown athwart the reflected beam of sunlight.
City of Endless Night
Milo Hastings

British Dictionary definitions for shutters

shutter

noun

a hinged doorlike cover, often louvred and usually one of a pair, for closing off a window

put up the shutters to close business at the end of the day or permanently

photog an opaque shield in a camera that, when tripped, admits light to expose the film or plate for a predetermined period, usually a fraction of a second. It is either built into the lens system or lies in the focal plane of the lens (focal-plane shutter)

photog a rotating device in a film projector that permits an image to be projected onto the screen only when the film is momentarily stationary

music one of the louvred covers over the mouths of organ pipes, operated by the swell pedal

a person or thing that shuts

verb (tr)

to close with or as if with a shutter or shutters

to equip with a shutter or shutters

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for shutters

shutter

1540s, "one who shuts" (see shut (v.)); meaning "movable wooden or iron screen for a window" is from 1680s. Photographic sense of "device for opening and closing the aperture of a lens" is from 1862.

shutter

1826, from shutter (n.). Related: Shuttered; shuttering.