shut, unopen, closed
(adjective) not open; “the door slammed shut”
closed, shut
(adjective) used especially of mouth or eyes; “he sat quietly with closed eyes”; “his eyes were shut against the sunlight”
close, shut
(verb) move so that an opening or passage is obstructed; make shut; “Close the door”; “shut the window”
close, shut
(verb) become closed; “The windows closed with a loud bang”
exclude, keep out, shut out, shut
(verb) prevent from entering; shut out; “The trees were shutting out all sunlight”; “This policy excludes people who have a criminal record from entering the country”
Source: WordNet® 3.1
shut (third-person singular simple present shuts, present participle shutting, simple past and past participle shut)
(transitive) To close, to stop from being open.
(intransitive) To close, to stop being open.
(transitive or intransitive, chiefly, British) To close a business temporarily, or (of a business) to be closed.
(transitive) To confine in an enclosed area.
(transitive) To catch or snag in the act of shutting something.
To preclude; to exclude; to bar out.
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.
shut (not comparable)
Closed.
(linguistics, phonetics) synonym of close
shut (plural shuts)
The act or time of shutting; close.
A door or cover; a shutter.
The line or place where two pieces of metal are welded together.
shut (plural shuts)
(British, Shropshire dialect) A narrow alley or passage acting as a short cut through the buildings between two streets.
• (alleyway): See Thesaurus:alley
• Hust, STHU, Tush, huts, thus, tush
Source: Wiktionary
Shut, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Shut; p. pr. & vb. n. Shutting.] Etym: [OE. shutten, schutten, shetten, schitten, AS. scyttan to shut or lock up (akin to D. schutten, G. schĂĽtzen to protect), properly, to fasten with a bolt or bar shot across, fr. AS. sceĂłtan to shoot. sq. root159. See Shoot.]
1. To close so as to hinder ingress or egress; as, to shut a door or a gate; to shut one's eyes or mouth.
2. To forbid entrance into; to prohibit; to bar; as, to shut the ports of a country by a blockade. Shall that be shut to man which to the beast Is open Milton.
3. To preclude; to exclude; to bar out. "Shut from every shore." Dryden.
4. To fold together; to close over, as the fingers; to close by bringing the parts together; as, to shut the hand; to shut a book. To shut in. (a) To inclose; to confine. "The Lord shut him in." Cen. vii. 16. (b) To cover or intercept the view of; as, one point shuts in another.
– To shut off. (a) To exclude. (b) To prevent the passage of, as steam through a pipe, or water through a flume, by closing a cock, valve, or gate.
– To shut out, to preclude from entering; to deny admission to; to exclude; as, to shut out rain by a tight roof.
– To shut together, to unite; to close, especially to close by welding.
– To shut up. (a) To close; to make fast the entrances into; as, to shut up a house. (b) To obstruct. "Dangerous rocks shut up the passage." Sir W. Raleigh. (c) To inclose; to confine; to imprison; to fasten in; as, to shut up a prisoner. Before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. Gal. iii. 23. (d) To end; to terminate; to conclude. When the scene of life is shut up, the slave will be above his master if he has acted better. Collier. (e) To unite, as two pieces of metal by welding. (f) To cause to become silent by authority, argument, or force.
Shut, v. i.
Definition: To close itself; to become closed; as, the door shuts; it shuts hard. To shut up, to cease speaking. [Colloq.] T. Hughes.
Shut, a.
1. Closed or fastened; as, a shut door.
2. Rid; clear; free; as, to get shut of a person. [Now dialectical or local, Eng. & U.S.] L'Estrange.
3. (Phon.) (a) Formed by complete closure of the mouth passage, and with the nose passage remaining closed; stopped, as are the mute consonants, p, t, k, b, d, and hard g. H. Sweet. (b) Cut off sharply and abruptly by a following consonant in the same syllable, as the English short vowels, â, ê, î, ô, û, always are.
Shut, n.
Definition: The act or time of shutting; close; as, the shut of a door. Just then returned at shut of evening flowers. Milton.
2. A door or cover; a shutter. [Obs.] Sir I. Newton.
3. The line or place where two pieces of metal are united by welding. Cold shut, the imperfection in a casting caused by the flowing of liquid metal upon partially chilled metal; also, the imperfect weld in a forging caused by the inadequate heat of one surface under working.
Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition
24 March 2025
(adjective) (music) marked by or composed of disconnected parts or sounds; cut short crisply; “staccato applause”; “a staccato command”; “staccato notes”
The word “coffee” entered the English language in 1582 via the Dutch “koffie,” borrowed from the Ottoman Turkish “kahve,” borrowed in turn from the Arabic “qahwah.” The Arabic word qahwah was traditionally held to refer to a type of wine.
