Word.ws English Dictionary

shut one's trap

shut one's trap verb: to stop talking; to be quiet.

Verb

shut one's trap (third-person singular simple present shuts one's trap, present participle shutting one's trap, simple past and past participle shut one's trap)

  1. (idiomatic) To stop talking; to be quiet.
    • Why don't you just shut your trap? I'm tired of listening to you.

Forms of shut one's trap

third-person singular presentshuts one's trap
present participleshutting one's trap
past participleshut one's trap
pastshut one's trap

Origin of shut one's trap

From the slang use of trap in reference to a person's mouth.

Questions about shut one's trap

What does shut one's trap mean?
Shut one's trap means to stop talking; to be quiet.
What part of speech is shut one's trap?
Shut one's trap is a verb.
What is the past tense of shut one's trap?
The past tense of shut one's trap is shut one's trap.

Words near shut one's trap in the dictionary

  1. shut one's eyes and thought of England
  2. shut one's face
  3. shut one's gob
  4. shut one's head
  5. shut one's mouth
  6. shut one's trap
  7. shut out
  8. shut outs
  9. shut the box
  10. shut the door
  11. shut the fridge

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: shut one's trap (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-shut one's trap.ogg.

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