shut

verb

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\ ˈshət

shut; shutting

Definition of shut

(Entry 1 of 3)

transitive verb

1a : to move into position to close an opening shut the lid

b : to prevent entrance to or passage to or from

2 : to confine by or as if by enclosure shut herself in her study

3 : to fasten with a lock or bolt

4 : to close by bringing enclosing or covering parts together shut the eyes

5 : to cause to cease or suspend an operation or activity —often used with down

intransitive verb

1 : to close itself or become closed flowers that shut at night

2 : to cease or suspend an operation or activity —often used with down

shut

adjective

Definition of shut (Entry 2 of 3)

1 : closed, fastened, or folded together

2 : rid, clear, free —usually used with of

shut

noun

Definition of shut (Entry 3 of 3)

: the act of shutting

Synonyms & Antonyms More Example Sentences Learn More about shut

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Synonyms & Antonyms for shut

Synonyms: Verb

close,
make
[chiefly dialect],
steek
[chiefly Scottish]

Antonyms: Verb

open

Examples of shut in a Sentence

Verb He shut his eyes and went to sleep. She shut the book loudly. I accidentally shut the door on her fingers. flowers that shut at night The door shut slowly behind me. The owner is shutting the pub for the weekend. They plan to shut the factory by the end of the year. Adjective She listened to the music with her eyes shut. Check to make sure that all the windows are shut.

Recent Examples on the Web: Verb The April 12, 1961, mission encountered glitches and emergencies — from a capsule hatch failing to shut properly just before blastoff to parachute problems in the final moments before touchdown. — NBC News, "Soviet cosmonaut made pioneering spaceflight 60 years ago," 12 Apr. 2021 Downtown Fort Lauderdale commuters should get ready for gridlock: Starting Tuesday, the Florida East Coast Railway intends to temporarily shut its Broward Boulevard rail crossing for repairs. — David Lyons, sun-sentinel.com, "Three days of traffic jams loom as FEC plans to shut down crossing on Broward Boulevard," 9 Apr. 2021 The Cougars then scored the first 22 points of the fourth to shut the door. — Tom Lang, Detroit Free Press, "Michigan high school boys basketball Division 2 semifinal: GR CC to final with 28-0 run," 8 Apr. 2021 The pandemic forced thousands of businesses across the country to shut their doors but has also created opportunities to open new ones. — Alison Sider, WSJ, "New U.S. Airline Avelo Enters Competitive Travel Market," 8 Apr. 2021 After a long wait, the Small Business Administration is set to open applications on April 8 for a brand new program offering grants – not loans – to live venue businesses that were forced to shut due to the COVID-19 pandemic. — Rhonda Abrams, USA TODAY, "Here are the new government efforts to help small businesses," 7 Apr. 2021 To remain productive as expenses rise, stores need sales to grow at a rate of about 3% to 4% annually, according to UBS, which concludes retailers will need to shut 80,000 locations to maintain this growth while e-commerce draws away sales. — Marc Bain, Quartz, "What an estimated 80,000 store closings say about the future of US retail," 6 Apr. 2021 With the rampant closings of YMCAs and youth centers, and now with FSURC at risk, the city continues to shut many Black youths out of the forms of escape, release, and leisure that their white counterparts are so often afforded. — Talia Smith, Harper's BAZAAR, "Concrete Cowboy Is a Fictional Story Based on a Real-Life Battle Against Gentrification," 5 Apr. 2021 Distillers were forced to shut these locations down due to Covid-19 lockdowns, which made in-person sales all but disappear. — Bryan Hood, Robb Report, "American Craft Distillers’ Sales Plummeted by 55% in 2020," 2 Apr. 2021 Recent Examples on the Web: Adjective McCreary is also wary of what happens when some campuses start to reopen in the fall while others remain shut. — Chris Quintana, USA Today, "Two fraternity deaths in two months. COVID didn't stop hazing - it hid it away from 'watchful eyes'," 27 Mar. 2021 Elementary schools reopened this month, but all other schools and universities remain shut. — Mike Corder, Star Tribune, "Dutch parliament approves new coronavirus curfew law," 18 Feb. 2021 Public venues such as cinemas, museums and libraries also remain shut and there are strict limits on the size of gatherings both indoors and outside. — Mike Corder, Star Tribune, "Dutch lockdown extended as virus variants gain strongly," 2 Feb. 2021 Of those that remain shut, 200 are located in the United States, 11 are in Israel and six are in the United Kingdom. — Hanna Ziady, CNN, "James Bond's 'No Time To Die' has been delayed until 2021 in fresh blow to Hollywood," 3 Oct. 2020 Of those that remain shut, 200 are located in the United States, 11 are in Israel and six are in the United Kingdom. — Hanna Ziady, CNN, "James Bond's 'No Time To Die' has been delayed until 2021 in fresh blow to Hollywood," 3 Oct. 2020 Of those that remain shut, 200 are located in the United States, 11 are in Israel and six are in the United Kingdom. — Hanna Ziady, CNN, "James Bond's 'No Time To Die' has been delayed until 2021 in fresh blow to Hollywood," 3 Oct. 2020 Of those that remain shut, 200 are located in the United States, 11 are in Israel and six are in the United Kingdom. — Hanna Ziady, CNN, "James Bond's 'No Time To Die' has been delayed until 2021 in fresh blow to Hollywood," 3 Oct. 2020 Of those that remain shut, 200 are located in the United States, 11 are in Israel and six are in the United Kingdom. — Hanna Ziady, CNN, "James Bond's 'No Time To Die' has been delayed until 2021 in fresh blow to Hollywood," 3 Oct. 2020 Recent Examples on the Web: Noun This is the perfect cultural moment to dangle the Kennedy-era optimism of a space hotel before a country full of jumpy shut-ins. — Washington Post, "What would it take to make a four-star space hotel?," 8 Apr. 2021 In some cases, well shut-ins in West Texas caused gas supplies to dip, reducing pressure at gas plants and forcing them offline. — Bloomberg Wire, Dallas News, "The two hours that nearly destroyed the Texas electric grid," 22 Feb. 2021 Dinner to Your Door delivers hot meals to 42 seniors, shut-ins and disabled residents in Berea, Brook Park and Middleburg Heights. — cleveland, "Berea Community Outreach anchors city’s help to residents: Community Voices," 4 Jan. 2021 In the Western imagination, Japan is rife with shut-ins, celibates, suicides, loners, and obsessive geeks. — Ryu Spaeth, The New Republic, "How The New Yorker Fell Into the “Weird Japan” Trap," 17 Dec. 2020 The combination of a cataclysmic pandemic and nail-biting election reduced many Americans to part-time shut-ins and full-time nervous wrecks: tense, anxious, germophobic, claustrophobic, agoraphobic, pretty much everything-phobic. — Bill Carter For Cnn Business Perspectives, CNN, "TV viewers are craving comfort food. 2021 will deliver," 16 Dec. 2020 Without those dogs, Julia and Stirling might have become shut-ins, never leaving the house. — cincinnati.com, "Help support quality local journalism like this.," 10 Dec. 2020 All kinds of people — single people, seniors, shut-ins, people afraid of turkeys. — Steve Rubenstein, SFChronicle.com, "S.F. woman’s offer to cook Thanksgiving meals for neighbors was a hit," 26 Nov. 2020 Since late April, staff and volunteers have instituted three new programs and tweaked a fourth to reach out to seniors and children shut-ins in hospitals, assisted living facilities, memory care units and mental health centers. — Diane Bell Columnist, San Diego Union-Tribune, "Critter drive-ins, pet pen pals, Zoom and window watching combat COVID blues," 11 Nov. 2020

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'shut.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.