# shut
## English
### Pronunciation

* enPR: shŭt, IPA: /ʃʌt/
* (Northern England) IPA: /ʃʊt/
* (dialectal, archaic) IPA: /ʃɛt/ (see shet)
* Audio (US):(file)
* Rhymes: -ʌt

### Etymology 1

From Middle English shutten, shetten, from Old English scyttan (“to cause rapid movement, shoot a bolt, shut, bolt”), 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”).
Cognate with Dutch schutten (“to shut in, lock up”), Low German schütten (“to shut, lock in”), German schützen (“to shut out, dam, protect, guard”).

#### Verb

shut (third-person singular simple present shuts, present participle shutting, simple past shut, past participle shut or (obsolete, dialectal) shutten)
* (transitive, intransitive) To close, in various senses.
** (transitive, intransitive) 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.
    They shut the road for the festival.
    If you wait too long, the automatic door will shut.
** (transitive, intransitive) To make or become unreceptive.
    He has shut his mind to new ideas.
** (transitive, intransitive, chiefly British) 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.
    Lots of shops in the town centre have shut because of the recession.
** (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.
** (intransitive) To cease operation or cease to be available.
    Phone lines will shut in ten minutes.
** (ergative, computing, 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.
* (transitive) To catch or snag in the act of shutting something.
    He's just gone and shut his finger in the door!
* (transitive) To confine in an enclosed area; to enclose.
    I shut the cat in the kitchen before going out.
* (transitive) To isolate, to close off from the world.
** 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, Canto XXIII, page 39: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, […]
* (transitive) To preclude, exclude.
    Synonym: shut out
** 1697, Virgil, “Aeneis”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:shut from every shore
* simple past and past participle of shut

##### Usage notes

Except when part of one of the derived terms listed below, most uses of shut can be replaced by close. The reverse is not true – there are many uses of close that cannot be replaced by shut.

##### Derived terms

* shut away
* shut down
* shut in
* shut of
* shut off
* shut out
* shut up
* beshut
* outshut
* shutdown, shut-down
* shut-eye
* shut-in
* shutout, shut-out
* shutter
* shuttle
* cut-and-shut
* open-and-shut
* shut it
* shut my mouth
* shut one's eyes
* shut one's eyes and think of England
* shut one's eyes to
* shut one's face
* shut one's gob
* shut one's head
* shut one's mouth
* shut one's trap
* shut the box
* shut the door
* shut the door on
* shut the fridge
* shut the front door
* shut the stable door after the horse has bolted
* shut up shop
* shut your face
* shut your mouth
* shut your trap

##### Translations

    The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

#### Adjective

shut (not comparable)
* Closed, not open, in any of various senses.
** Physically sealed, obstructed, folded together, etc.
    A shut door barred our way into the house.
    Pleas keep your mouth shut while you are eating.
    A book lay shut on the table.
** Not available for use or operation.
    Phone lines are now shut.
** (of a business or venue) 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.
** Not receptive.
    He mind is shut to new ideas.
** (especially sports) Of a club, bat or other hitting implement, angled downwards and/or (for a right-hander) anticlockwise of straight.
* (heraldry) Synonym of close.
* (linguistics, phonetics, archaic) Synonym of close.
** 1810, Benjamin Humphrey Smart, A practical grammar of English pronunciation, page 344: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.

##### Derived terms

* every shut eye isn't asleep
* keep one's mouth shut
* open and shut
* open and shut case
* with one's eyes shut

##### Translations
#### Noun

shut (plural shuts)
* The act or time of shutting; close.
    the shut of a door
** 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; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:Just then returnd at ſhut of Evening Flours.
* A door or cover; a shutter[17th century].
* The line or place where two pieces of metal are welded together.

##### Derived terms

* cold shut

### Etymology 2

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

#### Noun

shut (plural shuts)
* (British, Shropshire dialect) A narrow alley or passage acting as a short cut through the buildings between two streets.

##### Synonyms

* (alleyway): See Thesaurus:alley

### References

* ↑ Stanley, Oma (1937) “I. Vowel Sounds in Stressed Syllables”, in The Speech of East Texas (American Speech: Reprints and Monographs; 2), New York: Columbia University Press, →DOI, →ISBN, § 12, page 27.

### Anagrams

* thus, Hust, huts, Tush, Thus, STHU, tush