# shut

Pronunciation: say "SHUT" /ʃʌt/

## Verb

1. To block or close off an opening, gap, or passage.
   - Simple: To close an opening so that nothing can pass through.
   - _She shut the lid firmly to keep the smell inside._
   - _The heavy doors shut automatically whenever the alarm sounds._
2. To close a business, factory, or service, or (of one) to stop operating, for a time or permanently.
   - Simple: To close a shop, factory, or service, or for it to stop working, for a while or for good.
   - _Officials decided to shut the plant after the safety inspection._
   - _The factory shut in 2009, and hundreds of workers lost their jobs._
4. To preclude or exclude a person or group from something.
   - Simple: To keep a person or group out so they cannot take part.
   - _Requiring an expensive license would shut most small farmers out of the local market._
   - _Critics argue that unpaid internships shut talented but poor students out of careers in journalism._
6. To make or become closed to ideas, feelings, or outside influence.
   - Simple: To become closed to new ideas or feelings, or to make someone that way.
   - _It is easy to shut your heart to the suffering of strangers when you see it on the news every night._
   - _Over the years he had shut his mind to any view that challenged his own._
7. To keep someone or something inside a closed place, or away from other people and the outside world.
   - Simple: To keep someone or something inside a place, or away from other people.
   - _The farmer shut the hens in their coop before nightfall._
   - _Guards used to shut prisoners in tiny stone cells._
8. To close an open application, window, or file, or to end a database connection or similar link.
   - Simple: To close a program, window, or file on a computer.
   - _Before you install the update, save your work and shut every program that is still running._
   - _In a hurry, she shut the spreadsheet without saving and lost a whole afternoon of changes._
11. To catch or pinch something in the act of closing a door, lid, or cover.
   - Simple: To trap something, like a finger, by closing a door on it.
   - _Mind you don't shut your scarf in the gate._
   - _She shut a corner of the tablecloth in the drawer by mistake._

## Adjective

3. Physically sealed, blocked, or folded together rather than open.
   - Simple: Closed and not open, or folded together like a book.
   - _The clam stayed shut despite our efforts to pry it apart._
   - _He found every window shut and bolted against the storm._
5. Of a shop, building, or service: closed, so that it is not operating or open to the public.
   - Simple: Closed, so people cannot go in or use it.
   - _The museum is shut on Mondays for cleaning._
   - _We found the bakery shut, its lights off and the door locked._
10. Closed off and unwilling to take in ideas, feelings, or influence.
   - Simple: Not willing to listen to or accept new ideas or feelings.
   - _The committee seemed shut to every fresh proposal._
   - _After the argument, he remained shut to all attempts at reconciliation._
13. Archaic form of shot, meaning rid of or cleared of something. *(dialectal, British)* — Archaic form of shot (“discharged, cleared, rid of something”).
   - Simple: Archaic form of shot. It describes being free of or rid of something unwanted.
   - _The tenants were at last shut of the damp old cottage._
   - _Once we are shut of these troubles, we can finally rest._

## Noun

9. The act of closing, or the time at which something closes. *(rare)*
   - Simple: The act or moment of closing something.
12. A door or cover that closes an opening; a shutter. *(rare)*
   - Simple: A panel or cover that closes over an opening.

## Other meanings

- (adjective) Of a club, bat, or other hitting implement, angled downward or, for a right-handed player, rotated counterclockwise from square, or both.
- (adjective) Synonymous with close; in heraldry, describing a bird shown with its wings folded against its body.
- (noun) A welded joint between two pieces of metal.
- (noun) A narrow alley or passage that runs between buildings as a shortcut from one street to another.

## Origin

From Middle English shutten, from Old English scyttan ("to shoot a bolt, shut, bolt"), from Proto-Germanic roots meaning "to bar or bolt" and ultimately from a Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to drive, rush." It is related to Dutch schutten and German schützen.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/shut (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).