shuts

1. 1
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of shut.

   The heavy gate shuts on its own once you let go of it.

   He shuts his laptop the moment the meeting ends.

   Note

   Where shut finally shows an ending: the verb stays shut in the past and the past participle, so this is the one form that marks it as present, for he, she or it. It works with or without an object (the gate shuts, he shuts the gate), and software follows suit: a window shuts, or a user shuts it. In British usage a shop or venue shuts for the evening, or for good.

2. 2
   noun

   Plural of shut.

   The medieval core of the city is laced with covered shuts and alleyways.

   Local guides take visitors down the hidden shuts that connect the main streets.

   Note

   In Shropshire dialect, shuts are the narrow alleys that serve as shortcuts through the buildings between two streets. The other nouns form the same regular plural: shuts as doors or shutters, or as the seams where two pieces of metal are welded. Only context tells them apart. Outside that dialect, alleys or passages is the safer word for the walkways.

Showing meanings only. Show all 2