Word.ws English Dictionary

shut

/ʃʌt/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

Northern England/ʃʊt/

shut verb: to remove or block an opening, gap or passage through. Also the simple past and past participle of shut.

Verb

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

  1. (intransitive, transitive) To remove or block an opening, gap or passage through.
    • Please shut the door.
    • The light was so bright I had to shut my eyes.
  2. (intransitive, transitive) To make or become unreceptive.
    • He has shut his mind to new ideas.
  3. (UK, intransitive, transitive) To close (a business or venue) temporarily or permanently.
    • They generally shut the museum each day at 6 pm.
    • The supermarket shuts at eight o'clock.
  4. (intransitive, transitive) To put out of use or operation.
    • We are shutting the phone lines at 9 pm.
    • They shut the airport because of a bomb scare.
  5. (intransitive, transitive) To cease operation or cease to be available.
    • Phone lines will shut in ten minutes.
  6. (ergative, intransitive, transitive, more usually 'close') To terminate an application, window, file or database connection, etc.
    • Shut the file when you have finished reading data.
    • This app has a bug: when you try to sort a large spreadsheet, it shuts.
  7. (transitive) To catch or snag in the act of shutting something.
    • He's just gone and shut his finger in the door!
  8. (transitive) To confine in an enclosed area; to enclose.
    • I shut the cat in the kitchen before going out.
  9. (transitive) To isolate, to close off from the world.
    • Now, sometimes in my sorrow shut,
      ⁠Or breaking into song by fits;
      ⁠Alone, alone, to where he sits,
      The Shadow cloak’d from head to foot
      Who keeps the keys of all the creeds,
      ⁠I wander, often falling lame, […]1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto XXIII”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 39
  10. (transitive) To preclude, exclude.
    • shut from every shore1697, Virgil, “Aeneis”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC
    Synonyms:
    shut out
  11. (colloquial) Synonym of shut up (“to stop talking or arguing”).
    • DD, what an idiot, please shut and quit distracting me with your drivel.1998 April 11, racerX66, “Speedvision Coverage”, in rec.autos.sport.f1 (Usenet), archived from the original on 03 Jul 2026
    • Yes, BT's caller ID *does* send CLI before ringing, that is the major advantage of it, but if you don't realise that there are TWO standards in use in the UK (Bellcore's standard is alive and kicking right here in good ol' UK), then please shut and stop spouting on about something you know nothing...1998 October 13, S J Watkins, “Q. Sky digibox and Phone line”, in alt.satellite.tv.europe (Usenet), archived from the original on 03 Jul 2026
    Synonyms:
    shut up

Adjective

shut (not comparable)

  1. Physically sealed, obstructed, folded together, etc.
    • A shut door barred our way into the house.
    • The door banged shut with a breeze.
  2. Not available for use or operation.
    • Phone lines are now shut.
  3. Not operating or conducting trade; not allowing entrance to visitors or the public.
    • Banks are shut on bank holidays.
    • The museum is shut for the Christmas holidays.
  4. Not receptive.
    • He mind is shut to new ideas.
  5. (especially) Of a club, bat or other hitting implement, angled downwards and/or (for a right-hander) anticlockwise of straight.
  6. Synonym of close.
    Synonyms:
    close
  7. (archaic) Synonym of close.
    • 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.1810, Benjamin Humphrey Smart, A practical grammar of English pronunciation, page 344
    Synonyms:
    close

Noun (1)

shut (plural shuts)

  1. The act or time of shutting; close.
    • the shut of a door
    • Just then returnd at ſhut of Evening Flours.1667, John Milton, “Book VIII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC...
  2. A door or cover; a shutter.
  3. The line or place where two pieces of metal are welded together.

Noun (2)

shut (plural shuts)

  1. (Shropshire, UK, dialectal) A narrow alley or passage acting as a short cut through the buildings between two streets.
    Synonyms:
    alley

Also used as

shut is also the simple past and past participle of shut.

shut is also the archaic form of shot.

shut meaning in Hindi, Urdu, Bengali and Telugu

shut in Hindi

(transitive) to close
बंद करना band karnā

shut in Urdu

(transitive) to close
بند کرنا band karnā

shut in Bengali

(transitive) to close
বন্ধ করা bondho kora

shut in Telugu

(transitive) to close
మూయు mūyu
More languagesFewer languages
shut in Sinhala
වහනවා wahanawā
shut in Assamese
জপোৱা zopüa, মুদা muda, বন্ধ কৰা bondho kora
shut in Nepali
बन्द गर्नु banda garnu
shut in Arabic
أَغْلَقَ ʔaḡlaqa, اِنْغَلَقَ inḡalaqa
shut in Malay
menutup, mengatup, membungkam
shut in Indonesian
menutup, menyumpal, membungkam
shut in Persian
بستن bastan
shut in Thai
งับ ngáp, หุบ hùp, ปิด bpìt
shut in Vietnamese
đóng
shut in Myanmar
ပိတ် pit

Examples of shut in a sentence

  • They shut the road for the festival.
  • If you wait too long, the automatic door will shut.
  • Lots of shops in the town centre have shut because of the recession.
  • Pleas keep your mouth shut while you are eating.
  • A book lay shut on the table.
  • I had to shut my eyes against the light.

All 40 example sentences with shut

Synonyms of shut

Forms of shut

Verb
third-person singular presentshuts
present participleshutting
pastshut
past participleshut
past participle (obsolete, dialectal)shutten
Noun
pluralshuts

Past tense of shut: shut

Plural of shut: shuts

Origin of shut

From Middle English schitten, schetten, from Old English sċyttan (“to cause rapid movement, shoot a bolt, shut, bolt”), from Proto-West Germanic *skuttjan, 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”). The Modern English word was originally a dialect form; the Old English word would have normally merged with shit. Cognate with Dutch schutten (“to shut in, lock up”), Low German schütten (“to shut, lock in”), German schützen (“to shut out, dam, protect, guard”).

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

Words formed from shut

Phrases with shut

Words that rhyme with shut

26 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about shut

What does shut mean?
Shut means to remove or block an opening, gap or passage through.
What is shut in Hindi?
Shut in Hindi is बंद करना (band karnā). See Shut meaning in Hindi.
How do you use shut in a sentence?
They shut the road for the festival.
What part of speech is shut?
Shut can be a verb, an adjective or a noun.
How do you pronounce shut?
Shut is pronounced /ʃʌt/.
What is the past tense of shut?
The past tense of shut is shut.

Words near shut in the dictionary

  1. Shusterman
  2. Shustermans
  3. Shustoke
  4. Shuswap
  5. Shuswaps
  6. shut
  7. shut away
  8. shut down
  9. shut in
  10. shut it
  11. shut my mouth

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: shut (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-shut.ogg.

Cite this entry: “shut.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/shut. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.