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 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
Recent Examples of Synonyms for shut-in
Noun
  • Last autumn, six months after beginning her solo career, the singer and Little Mix member pretty much resigned herself to life as a recluse, spending the majority of her time in her Cheshire house.
    Sophie Williams, Billboard, 24 Sep. 2025
  • How to identify them The legs of a brown recluse stretch to about the size of a quarter to a half-dollar, according to the University of Tennessee Agricultural Extension Service.
    Evan Mealins, Nashville Tennessean, 24 Sep. 2025
Noun
  • Its name draws from the Kazakh word for apple, reflecting the wild orchards of the surrounding valleys, which are believed to be the fruit’s birthplace.
    Nina Subkhanberdina, CNN Money, 30 Sep. 2025
  • The valley in between has few modern structures.
    Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 30 Sep. 2025
Noun
  • The cautious hermits of the KMT do not attempt to forecast the future.
    Timothy Nerozzi, The Washington Examiner, 16 Sep. 2025
  • Riley Moss was the sociable hermit in the caverns of Iowa’s practice facility.
    Luca Evans, Denver Post, 12 Sep. 2025
Noun
  • But something is definitely afoul; the corpses of pilgrims wound in silk clutter the hollows and even the ones that still live are either sad or flat-out nuts.
    Christopher Cruz, Rolling Stone, 19 Sep. 2025
  • Detractors wondered if the unending positivity was beneficial in the locker room, if the optimism was starting to ring hollow.
    Alex Zietlow, Charlotte Observer, 4 Sep. 2025
Noun
  • At the same time, Iryna also was a notorious homebody who often seemed happiest just spending time with family or curling up on the couch or her bed with her sketchbook.
    Danielle Battaglia, Charlotte Observer, 22 Sep. 2025
  • Even letters from Governor Nelson Rockefeller, Mayor John Lindsay and her current Central Park West co-op attesting to her quiet, homebody nature couldn’t get her past an East Side board.
    Kim Velsey, Curbed, 13 Aug. 2025
Noun
  • Hollywood’s leading performers, venturing into the dark vale of middle age, have often been kindly treated by directors of photography, if not by screenwriters.
    Anthony Lane, New Yorker, 18 Sep. 2025
  • EchoStar’s deal last year to sell Dish Network to DirecTV — then majority-owned by AT&T — was scrapped after EchoStar bondholders rejected the debt-exchange terms that would have reduced the vale of their holdings.
    Todd Spangler, Variety, 26 Aug. 2025
Noun
  • Best for Solo Train Enthusiasts: Scotland Discover the incredible and indelible beauty of the Scottish highlands, full of lochs, glens, castles and fluffy highland cows and sheep on a journey with Vacations by Rail.
    Wendy Altschuler, Forbes.com, 16 June 2025
  • 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
Noun
  • Trey Moore is a local paddler who knows just about every corner of the Nolichucky gorge.
    Rolando Arrieta, NPR, 29 Sep. 2025
  • It was imported from the neighboring island in its entirety and features open sides that allow for spectacular vistas of the river gorge under the stunning morning light.
    Kathryn Romeyn, Travel + Leisure, 28 Sep. 2025

Browse Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Shut-in.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/shut-in. Accessed 7 Oct. 2025.

More from Merriam-Webster on shut-in

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!