Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To move (a door or lid, for example) so as to block passage through an opening.
  • intransitive verb To fasten with a lock, catch, or latch.
  • intransitive verb To block entrance to or exit from; close.
  • intransitive verb To confine in a closed space.
  • intransitive verb To exclude from a closed space.
  • intransitive verb To fold up or bring together the parts of.
  • intransitive verb To cause to stop operating.
  • intransitive verb To move or become moved so as to block passage; close.
  • intransitive verb To stop operating, especially automatically.
  • noun The act or time of shutting.
  • noun The line of connection between welded pieces of metal.
  • idiom (shut (one's) eyes to) To refuse to consider or acknowledge.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The act of shutting, in any sense of the word.
  • noun The time of shutting.
  • noun That which shuts, closes, or covers; a shutter.
  • noun The point or line of shutting; specifically, the line where two pieces of metal are united by welding.
  • noun A riddance.
  • noun An imperfect welding in a forging, caused by the inadequate heat of one surface under working.
  • noun The grayling Thymallus vulgaris. Day.
  • Made fast or close; closed; inclosed. See shut, verb
  • Not resonant or sonorous; dull: said of sound.
  • In orthoëpy, having the sound suddenly interrupted or stopped by a succeeding consonant, as the i in pit or the o in got.
  • Separated, precluded, or hindered; hence, free; clear; rid: followed by of: used chiefly in such phrases as to get shut of, to be shut of. Also shet.
  • To shoot, as the bar or bolt or other fastening of a door or gate, or of a chest, etc.; push to; adjust in position so as to serve as a fastening.
  • To make fast by means of a bolt, bar, or the like; hence, in later use, to close, with or without fastening; place in or over a place of entrance so as to obstruct passage in or out: as, to shut a door, gate, lid, cover, etc.: often followed by down, to, or up.
  • To prevent passage through; cover; obstruct; block: sometimes followed by up.
  • To close the entrance of; prevent access to or egress from: as, to shut a house; to shut a box; to shut one's ears: often followed by up.
  • To bring together the parts of.
  • To fold or bring together; bring into narrow compass from a state of expansion: as, to shut a parasol; to shut a book.
  • To bar or lock in; hence, to confine; hem in; inclose; environ; surround or cover more or less completely: now always followed by a preposition or an adverb, as in, into, among, up, down, etc.
  • To bar out; separate by barriers; put or keep out; exclude, either literally or figuratively; preclude: followed by an adverb or a preposition denoting separation.
  • To catch and pinch or hold fast by the act of shutting something: as, to shut one's fingers or one's dress in a door; to shut one's glove in a window.
  • To do; manage.
  • To weld (iron). Halliwell. See to shut up , and shutting, n.
  • To reduce to inaction or silence, especially the latter.
  • To unite, as two pieces of metal by welding.
  • To be a means of bolting, locking, or closing.
  • To close itself; be closed: as, the door shuts of itself; certain flowers shut at night and open in the day.
  • To be extravagant.
  • To desist; leave off; especially, to stop talking.
  • In sporting, to give out, as one horse when challenged by another in a race.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The act or time of shutting; close.
  • noun obsolete A door or cover; a shutter.
  • noun The line or place where two pieces of metal are united by welding.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English shutten, from Old English scyttan; see skeud- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English shutten, shetten, from Old English scyttan ("to cause rapid movement, shoot a bolt, shut, bolt, shut to, discharge a debt, pay off"), from Proto-Germanic *skutjanan, *skuttjanan (“to bar, bolt”), from Proto-Germanic *skuttan, *skuttjō (“bar, bolt, shed”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)keud- (“to drive, fall upon, rush”). Cognate with Dutch schutten ("to shut in, lock up"), German schützen ("to shut out, dam, protect, guard"), Albanian skuth ("a mean and deceitful person").

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Variation of chute or shute (archaic, related to shoot) from Old English scēotan.

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Examples

  • Then turning, she saw the door shut behind her, slowly, noiselessly, but _it was shut_.

    Agatha's Husband A Novel Dinah Maria Mulock Craik 1856

  • But he was gone from her, his expression shut and locked like a door.

    Cassandra Clare: The Mortal Instrument Series Cassandra Clare 2009

  • But he was gone from her, his expression shut and locked like a door.

    City of Ashes Cassandra Clare 2008

  • I keep seeing the phrase "shut down" in reference to the nuclear reactors at Fukushima, but clearly they are not shut down as they are still generating tremendous energy in the form of heat.

    NYT > Global Home By THE NEW YORK TIMES 2011

  • The band signed its U.S. deal with Conquest in 1998, but the label shut down soon after.

    post-gazette.com - News 2010

  • After a long affiliation with Trevor Jackson's now defunct Output Records, which came to an end in 2006-when the label shut its doors just after the release of Circlesquare's excellent

    PopMatters 2009

  • In January, the label shut its doors at 1042 Madison Avenue, between East 79th and

    unknown title 2009

  • Whether the plant will remain shut isn't clear, as company and government officials aren't saying what triggered the action.

    Shenzhen Zinc Producer Halts Operations James T. Areddy 2010

  • The grass roots movement is too strong to ever lose to a "know nothing" bimbo like Palin shut up!!

    Palin to make announcement Friday 2009

  • McCain shut up .. you think it is wrong because you are not in charge.

    McCain: Obama was wrong on stimulus either then or now 2009

Comments

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  • I'd seen all I wanted to of them, and wanted to get entirely shut of them. HF 31

    December 7, 2006

  • It is also the past of the verb 'to shut'. 'The door shut behind me before I could ...'

    October 7, 2011

  • the tweets are so rude

    October 8, 2012