Word.ws English Dictionary

shuts up shop

shuts up shop is the third-person singular simple present indicative of shut up shop.

Meaning of shut up shop

Verb

shut up shop (third-person singular simple present shuts up shop, present participle shutting up shop, simple past and past participle shut up shop)

  1. (UK, colloquial, intransitive) To close up shop; to end a business activity.
    • The company decided to shut up shop in this country and move to America, where corporate taxes are lower.
  2. (intransitive) To bat defensively in the last innings of a match in order to force a draw when winning is not possible.
  3. (intransitive) To play extremely defensively
    • Having taken a ninth-minute lead through the imperious Erling Haaland and seeing out the opening 45 minutes pretty comfortably, Guardiola decided to shut up shop in the second half, possibly with tiredness in mind.2025 September 21, Shamoon Hafez, “Guardiola gamble almost pays off as Liverpool cash in”, in BBC Sport
    Synonyms:
    park the bus

Questions about shuts up shop

What is shuts up shop the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
Shuts up shop is the third-person singular simple present indicative of shut up shop.

Words near shuts up shop in the dictionary

  1. shuts one's trap
  2. shuts out
  3. shuts the stable door after the horse has bolted
  4. shuts up
  5. shuts up like a clam
  6. shuts up shop
  7. shuts-up
  8. Shutt
  9. shuttable
  10. shuttance
  11. shuttances

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: shuts up shop (page history and authors); shut up shop (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:

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