1
: a person who is confined to home, a room, or bed because of illness or incapacity
2
: a narrow gorge-shaped part of an otherwise wide valley
3
: available oil or gas which is not being produced from an existing well
shut in; shutting in; shuts in
2
: to prevent production of (oil or gas) by closing down a well
Examples of shut-in in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Nicholas Derenzo, AFAR Media, 16 Sep. 2025
By visiting with the sick and shut-in, helping the bereaved, ministering to the incarcerated, always being willing to open the doors of Mount Moriah Missionary Baptist Church to more people, teaching theology to other pastors and more, Thornhill was a pastor.
—Sophia Tiedge, jsonline.com, 11 Sep. 2025
Emphasizing creativity, Maria Lee said kids chose a variety of ways to serve from lemonade stands contributing to Texas flood victims, flower deliveries to elderly shut-ins, park cleanups and adding flags to headstones at veterans cemeteries.
—Stuart Dyos, Nashville Tennessean, 7 Sep. 2025
While Miranda is busy building her empire, her husband Ray, a nurse with a hobby of taking random pills, has knocked up the eighteen-year-old granddaughter of one of his hospice patients; and her mother Joan, a widowed shut-in, is plotting a murder with Jesus.
—Nellie Andreeva, Deadline, 28 Aug. 2025
And her mother Joan, a widowed shut-in, is plotting a murder with Jesus.
—Ethan Shanfeld, Variety, 28 Aug. 2025
Just as shut-in was the driver of a big Chevrolet Suburban, except that its 28% near-view in 2023 had not shrunk quite as much from the mere 56% view available to drivers of the body shape launched in 2000, the earliest tested.
—Ian Baker
august 21, New Atlas, 21 Aug. 2025
The greatest risk factor for death during hot weather was social isolation: the elderly shut-in or the person with mental disorders on psychiatric medication.
—Cory Franklin, Chicago Tribune, 13 July 2025
Mostly, though, there are packages, a tsunami of packages mailed by retailers to a nation of new shut-ins, suddenly ordering everything online for delivery to their front door.
—Casey Cep, New Yorker, 28 June 2025
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Noun
Visitors should pair the shut-ins with a stop at Elephant Rocks State Park, about a 15-minute drive away, which gets its name from a series of enormous pink granite boulders that are said to resemble circus elephants standing trunk to tail.
—Nicholas Derenzo, AFAR Media, 16 Sep. 2025
By visiting with the sick and shut-in, helping the bereaved, ministering to the incarcerated, always being willing to open the doors of Mount Moriah Missionary Baptist Church to more people, teaching theology to other pastors and more, Thornhill was a pastor.
—Sophia Tiedge, jsonline.com, 11 Sep. 2025
Emphasizing creativity, Maria Lee said kids chose a variety of ways to serve from lemonade stands contributing to Texas flood victims, flower deliveries to elderly shut-ins, park cleanups and adding flags to headstones at veterans cemeteries.
—Stuart Dyos, Nashville Tennessean, 7 Sep. 2025
While Miranda is busy building her empire, her husband Ray, a nurse with a hobby of taking random pills, has knocked up the eighteen-year-old granddaughter of one of his hospice patients; and her mother Joan, a widowed shut-in, is plotting a murder with Jesus.
—Nellie Andreeva, Deadline, 28 Aug. 2025
And her mother Joan, a widowed shut-in, is plotting a murder with Jesus.
—Ethan Shanfeld, Variety, 28 Aug. 2025
Just as shut-in was the driver of a big Chevrolet Suburban, except that its 28% near-view in 2023 had not shrunk quite as much from the mere 56% view available to drivers of the body shape launched in 2000, the earliest tested.
—Ian Baker
august 21, New Atlas, 21 Aug. 2025
The greatest risk factor for death during hot weather was social isolation: the elderly shut-in or the person with mental disorders on psychiatric medication.
—Cory Franklin, Chicago Tribune, 13 July 2025
Mostly, though, there are packages, a tsunami of packages mailed by retailers to a nation of new shut-ins, suddenly ordering everything online for delivery to their front door.
—Casey Cep, New Yorker, 28 June 2025
Cite this Entry
“Shut-in.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/shut-in. Accessed 25 Oct. 2025.
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shut-in
1 of 2 noun
: a person who is confined to home, a room, or bed because of illness or incapacity
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