shut

shut

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: shŭt, IPA^(key): /ʃʌt/
• (dialectal, archaic) IPA^(key): /ʃɛt/ (see shet)[1]

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌt

Etymology 1

From Middle English shutten, shetten, from Old English scyttan (“to cause rapid movement, shoot a bolt, shut, bolt”), from Proto-Germanic *skutjaną, *skuttijaną (“to bar, bolt”), from Proto-Germanic *skuttą, *skuttjō (“bar, bolt, shed”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kewd- (“to drive, fall upon, rush”).

Cognate with Dutch schutten (“to shut in, lock up”), Low German schütten (“to shut, lock in”), German schützen (“to shut out, dam, protect, guard”).

Verb

shut (third-person singular simple present shuts, present participle shutting, simple past shut, past participle shut or (obsolete, dialectal) shutten)

1. (transitive) To close, to stop from being open.

   Please shut the door.

   The light was so bright I had to shut my eyes.

2. (intransitive) To close, to stop being open.

   If you wait too long, the automatic door will shut.

3. (transitive or intransitive, chiefly Britain) To close a business temporarily, or (of a business) to be closed.

   The pharmacy is shut on Sunday.

4. (transitive) To confine in an enclosed area.

   I shut the cat in the kitchen before going out.

5. (transitive) To catch or snag in the act of shutting something.

   He's just gone and shut his finger in the door!

6. To preclude; to exclude; to bar out.
   • 1697, Virgil, “Aeneis”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], OCLC 403869432:

     shut from every shore

Usage notes

Except when part of one of the derived terms listed below, almost every use of shut can be replaced by close. The reverse is not true -- there are many uses of close that cannot be replaced by shut.

Derived terms

phrasal verbs derived from shut

• shut away
• shut down
• shut in
• shut off
• shut out
• shut up

single words and compounds derived from shut

• beshut
• outshut
• shutdown, shut-down
• shut-eye
• shut-in
• shuttle
• shutout, shut-out
• shutter

idioms derived from shut

• open-and-shut
• shut one's eyes to
• shut the door on
• shut up shop
• shut your face
• shut your mouth
• shut your trap

Translations

(transitive) to close

Afrikaans: sluit (af), toemaak Albanian: mbyll (sq) Arabic: أَغْلَقَ‎ (ʾaḡlaqa) Egyptian Arabic: قفل‎ (qafal) Armenian: փակել (hy) (pʿakel) Assamese: জপোৱা (zopüa), মুদা (muda), বন্ধ কৰা (bondho kora) Asturian: zarrar, cerrar Azerbaijani: qapamaq, bağlamaq (az), örtmək (az) Belarusian: зачыня́ць impf (začynjácʹ), зачыні́ць pf (začynícʹ) Bengali: বন্ধ করা (bn) (bôndhô kôra) Bulgarian: затва́рям (bg) impf (zatvárjam) Burmese: ပိတ် (my) (pit) Cherokee: ᎠᏍᏚᎲᏍᎦ (asduhvsga) Chinese: Cantonese: 關 (yue), 关 (gwaan1) Mandarin: 關／关 (zh) (guān), 閉／闭 (zh) (bì), 關閉／关闭 (zh) (guānbì) Czech: zavřít (cs) pf Dalmatian: seruar Danish: lukke (da) Dutch: sluiten (nl), dichtklappen (nl) Esperanto: fermi (eo) Estonian: sulgema Finnish: sulkea (fi) French: fermer (fr) Friulian: sierâ Galician: pechar (gl) Georgian: დახურვა (daxurva) German: schließen (de), zumachen (de) Greek: κλείνω (el) (kleíno) Ancient: κλείω (kleíō) Haitian Creole: fèmen Hebrew: סָגַר‎ (he) (sagár) Hindi: बंद करना (band karnā) Hungarian: becsuk (hu) Icelandic: loka Indonesian: menutup (id), menyumpal (id), membungkam (id) Irish: dún Italian: chiudere (it), serrare (it) Japanese: 閉める (ja) (しめる, shimeru), 閉じる (ja) (とじる, tojiru) Kazakh: жабу (kk) (jabu) Khmer: បិទ (km) (bət) Korean: 닫다 (ko) (datda) Kurdish: Central Kurdish: داخستن‎ (ku) (daxistin) Kyrgyz: жабуу (ky) (jabuu), бекитүү (ky) (bekitüü) Lao: ອັດ (ʼat) Latin: claudō Latvian: aizvērt Lithuanian: uždaryti Low German: sluten, slüten, tomaken, tomoken, dichtmaken, dichtmoken Lombard: sarà (lmo) Macedonian: за́твори (zátvori) Malay: menutup Maltese: għalaq Maori: kupi (the eyes), kōpani (with a lid or cover), tō (a door or window), kamu (the mouth whilst eating), whakaweto (a machine or equipment), kati (of applications, business etc), kiwa (the eyes) Mongolian: хаах (mn) (xaax) Nepali: बन्द गर्नु (banda garnu) Norwegian: Bokmål: stenge Old English: scyttan Persian: بستن‎ (fa) (bastan) Polish: zamykać (pl) impf, zamknąć (pl) pf Portuguese: fechar (pt) Romansch: serrar, sarar Russian: закрыва́ть (ru) impf (zakryvátʹ), закры́ть (ru) pf (zakrýtʹ) Scottish Gaelic: dùin Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: затворити pf Roman: zatvoriti (sh) pf Sicilian: chiùdiri (scn) Sinhalese: වහනවා (wahanawā) Slovak: zavrieť impf Slovene: zapreti (sl) Spanish: cerrar (es) Swedish: stänga (sv) Tajik: бастан (tg) (bastan), пӯшидан (püšidan) Telugu: మూయు (te) (mūyu) Thai: งับ (th) (ngáp), หุบ (th) (hùp), ปิด (th) (bpìt) Tibetan: please add this translation if you can Tok Pisin: pasim Turkish: kapatmak (tr) Turkmen: ýapmak, örtmek Ugaritic: 𐎒𐎂𐎗 (sgr) Ukrainian: зачиня́ти impf (začynjáty), зачини́ти pf (začynýty), закрива́ти (uk) impf (zakryváty), закри́ти pf (zakrýty) Urdu: بند کرنا‎ (band karnā) Uzbek: bekitmoq (uz), yopmoq (uz) Venetian: serar, sarar Vietnamese: đóng (vi) Welsh: cau (cy) White Hmong: please add this translation if you can Yiddish: שליסן‎ (shlisn), פֿאַרמאַכן‎ (farmakhn) Zhuang: please add this translation if you can

(intransitive) to close, to stop being open

Arabic: اِنْغَلَقَ‎ (inḡalaqa) Bulgarian: затварям се (zatvarjam se) Japanese: 閉まる (ja) (しまる, shimaru) (intransitive)

Adjective

shut (not comparable)

1. Closed; not open.

   A shut door barred our way into the house.

2. (linguistics, phonetics, archaic) Synonym of close
   • 1810, Benjamin Humphrey Smart, A practical grammar of English pronunciation, page 344:

     Whenever a syllable is formed with a long, that is an open vowel, they account the syllable long; and whenever formed with a short, that is a shut vowel, they reckon it short.

Translations

closed — see closed

Noun

shut (plural shuts)

1. The act or time of shutting; close.

   the shut of a door

   • 1667, John Milton, “Book VIII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], OCLC 228722708; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, OCLC 230729554:

     Just then returnd at ſhut of Evening Flours.

2. A door or cover; a shutter[17th century].
3. The line or place where two pieces of metal are welded together.

Etymology 2

Variation of chute or shute (archaic, related to shoot) from Old English scēotan.

Noun

shut (plural shuts)

1. (Britain, Shropshire dialect) A narrow alley or passage acting as a short cut through the buildings between two streets.

Synonyms

• (alleyway): See Thesaurus:alley

References

1. Stanley, Oma (1937), “I. Vowel Sounds in Stressed Syllables”, in The Speech of East Texas (American Speech: Reprints and Monographs; 2), New York: Columbia University Press, DOI:10.7312/stan90028, →ISBN, § 12, page 27.

Anagrams

• Hust, STHU, Tush, huts, thus, tush