Word.ws English Dictionary

puts up or shuts up

puts up or shuts up is the third-person singular simple present indicative of put up or shut up.

Meaning of put up or shut up

Verb

put up or shut up (third-person singular simple present puts up or shuts up, present participle putting up or shutting up, simple past and past participle put up or shut up)

  1. (idiomatic) To desist from saying something unless one is able to prove it; to act in a manner that makes further talk unnecessary.
    • "If the evidence for modern Darwinian theory is so overwhelming, they should have called the bluff on the other side and come and made their arguments. ... They should have put up or shut up."2005 June 21, Cornelia Dean, “Opting Out in the Debate on Evolution”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 11 Feb 2021, retrieved 22 Jun 2011

Questions about puts up or shuts up

What is puts up or shuts up the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
Puts up or shuts up is the third-person singular simple present indicative of put up or shut up.

Words near puts up or shuts up in the dictionary

  1. puts up a show
  2. puts up on
  3. puts up one's dukes
  4. puts up one's hand
  5. puts up one's hands
  6. puts up or shuts up
  7. puts up to
  8. puts up with
  9. puts wood in t'hole
  10. puts wood in t’hole
  11. puts words in someone's mouth

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: puts up or shuts up (page history and authors); put up or shut up (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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