shutter
[shuht-er]
- 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.
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- to close or provide with shutters: She shuttered the windows.
- to close (a store or business operations) for the day or permanently.
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- to close or close down: The factory has shuttered temporarily.
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Origin of shutter
Synonym study
1. See curtain.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for shutters
Contemporary Examples
Greengrass told the quartet they had the parts at Shutters Hotel in Santa Monica.
On the shutters of a cosmetics store someone has written, “Pepper spray is good for the skin.”
Just taking the shutters down and re-entering the world of daylight was a relief in itself.
But at the house to the right and the house to the left, there are broken windows and shutters.
Historical Examples
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 ChickamaugaJoseph A. Altsheler
Physician had opened the shutters of one window while waiting, that he might see the light.
Little DorritCharles Dickens
The Venetian shutters often had to be lowered in the summer to attenuate the great heat.
The Three Cities Trilogy, CompleteEmile Zola
The shutters were thrown athwart the reflected beam of sunlight.
City of Endless NightMilo Hastings
shutter
- 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
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- to close with or as if with a shutter or shutters
- to equip with a shutter or shutters
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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
n.
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.
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shutter
v.
1826, from shutter (n.). Related: Shuttered; shuttering.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper