shut-in

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of shut-in Like Wick, Nathan Caine (Quaid) is an unassuming, socially awkward shut-in who possesses a unique set of dormant skills, which get unleashed by unpredictable (and exceptionally violent) external forces. Gregory Nussen, Deadline, 8 Mar. 2025 The shut-in tropes of the stay-at-home parent no longer apply—these women are neither disconnected nor stagnant. Neha Ruch, TIME, 14 Jan. 2025 The filmmaker hatched the project before the COVID-19 pandemic, but somehow failed to consider that audiences have had their fill of claustrophobic shut-in stories. Peter Debruge, Variety, 1 Sep. 2024 Advertisement Arlo, though, is absent and presumed dead, and Naoise’s mom (Simone Kirby) has become a shut-in. Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times, 2 Aug. 2024 Solomon wants Fizz to be a place for an online meet-cute or where frat boys and dorm shut-ins find common ground through the sale of a used textbook—an oasis for community that is as functional as it is feel-good. Sasha Rogelberg, Fortune, 20 July 2024 These are among the least bellicose films A24 has ever released: dramas about sensitive oily-cake salesmen, frustrated ceramicists, lonely shut-ins, and boys who love horses. Nate Jones, Vulture, 24 Apr. 2024 Who, besides incels and shut-ins, wants to spend all day talking to chatbots? Kevin Roose, New York Times, 9 May 2024 For many, many years by then, my mother had lived mostly as a shut-in, able to walk but very unsteadily; my father used their home’s three front porch steps to keep her indoors. Sarah Stankorb, Longreads, 9 May 2024
Recent Examples of Synonyms for shut-in
Noun
  • However, Michaela reveals the truth is actually that Jocelyn became a recluse 10 years prior because she was disfigured by plastic surgery after her and Peter's divorce.
    Megan McCluskey, Time, 22 May 2025
  • Summit, June 10 Image So Far Gone by Jess Walter Rhys Kinnick, a journalist and a recluse, is living off the grid in the woods near Spokane, Wash., when his grandchildren are kidnapped by thugs.
    Laura Thompson, New York Times, 22 May 2025
Noun
  • The juxtaposition of 2025 to 2000 belies the occasional peaks and longer stretches in the valley that the franchise has experienced in that time.
    Tim Britton, New York Times, 30 May 2025
  • On Friday, temperatures in Southern California are expected to range from eight to 16 degrees above normal, with highs in the 90s to just above 100 degrees across the valleys, lower mountains and deserts, according to the National Weather Service’s Oxnard office.
    Karen Garcia, Los Angeles Times, 30 May 2025
Noun
  • Nicolas Cage plays a grizzled, mournful hermit named Rob who lives in the woods of the Pacific Northwest and spends his days hunting truffles with his pig, Apple, and then trading them to big-city buyer Amir (Alex Wolff).
    Bilge Ebiri, Vulture, 28 May 2025
  • The meditative documentary, which premiered in competition at last year’s Locarno Film Festival, follows Jake Williams, a modern-day hermit living in Scotland’s remote Highlands.
    Naman Ramachandran, Variety, 15 May 2025
Noun
  • One theory is that the hollows on the rock resemble parts of a face: eyes, mouth and chin.
    Rosa Rahimi, CNN Money, 29 May 2025
  • Also, check for hollows in trunks that may mean the interior portion is rotting.
    Tom MacCubbin, The Orlando Sentinel, 25 May 2025
Noun
  • That confidence paid off as Farrow received her first Tony nomination for her role as the initially meek homebody Sharon in the play by Jen Silverman, which ran at the Booth Theatre on Broadway from September through December 2024.
    Caitlin Huston, HollywoodReporter, 31 May 2025
  • She was described as a shy homebody and speaking only Ukrainian.
    David Matthews, New York Daily News, 8 Apr. 2025
Noun
  • And, far and near, through vale and hill, Are faces that attest the same; The proud heart flashing through the eyes, At sound of Rob Roy’s name.
    Patricia Lockwood, New Yorker, 18 May 2025
  • The 2021 Caldor Fire raced toward the South Lake Tahoe neighborhood of Christmas Valley, tucked in a secluded vale.
    CalMatters, The Mercury News, 20 Mar. 2025
Noun
  • One of the biggest temperate rainforests in the United States, the Hoh Rain Forest is worth visiting just for fantastical trails like the Hall of Mosses and Hoh River Trail that wind through peaceful glens of trees positively dripping with moss.
    Zoe Baillargeon, Travel + Leisure, 20 Apr. 2025
  • In terms of materials, Brown describes their creation as a result of her early success, pointing to 2002’s Figures in a Landscape 2, her six-foot by almost seven-foot painting that sends you back to one of Fragonard’s forest glens, with the female in the gaze of the lurking male.
    Robert Sullivan, Vogue, 17 Mar. 2025
Noun
  • The lovely gorge setting makes Screw Auger a popular place to visit in the summer.
    Evie Carrick, Travel + Leisure, 3 June 2025
  • There are also a number of other waterfalls—including Cane Creek Falls and Piney Falls—as well as streams, gorges, and dense forests.
    Lydia Mansel, Southern Living, 29 May 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Shut-in.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/shut-in. Accessed 12 Jun. 2025.

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