shut

English

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ʃʌt/, SAMPA: /SVt/

• 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, shut to, discharge a debt, pay off”), from Proto-Germanic *skutjanan, *skuttjanan (“to bar, bolt”), from Proto-Germanic *skuttan, *skuttjō (“bar, bolt, shed”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)keud- (“to drive, fall upon, rush”). Cognate with Dutch schutten (“to shut in, lock up”), German schützen (“to shut out, dam, protect, guard”).

Verb

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

1. (transitive) To close, to stop from being open.

   Please shut the door.

   The light was so bright I had to shut my eyes.

2. (intransitive) To close, to stop being open.

   If you wait too long, the automatic door will shut.

3. (transitive or intransitive, chiefly UK) To close a business temporarily, or (of a business) to be closed.

   The pharmacy is shut on Sunday.

Usage notes

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.

Derived terms

phrasal verbs derived from shut

shut away shut down shut in

shut off shut out shut up

single words and compounds derived from shut

shutdown, shut-down shut-eye shut-in

shutout, shut-out shutter

idioms derived from shut

open and shut shut one's eyes to shut the door on shut up shop

shut your face shut your mouth shut your trap

Translations

to close

Arabic: أغلق (ar) (ʾáġlaqa), قفل (ar) (qáfala) Egyptian Arabic: قفل (qafal) Belarusian: зачыняць (be) (začynjác’) impf., зачыніць (be) (začyníc’) pf. Chinese: Mandarin: 關 (cmn), 关 (cmn) (guān), 閉 (cmn), 闭 (cmn) (bì), 關閉 (cmn), 关闭 (cmn) (guānbì) Czech: zavřít (cs) Danish: lukke (da) Dutch: sluiten, dichtklappen Esperanto: fermi (eo) Finnish: sulkea (fi) French: fermer (fr) German: schließen (de), zumachen (de) Greek: κλείνω (el) (kleino) Hebrew: סגר (he) (sagár) Hindi: बंद करना (hi) (band karnā) Hungarian: becsuk (hu) Indonesian: menutup, menyumpal, membungkam Irish: dún (ga) Italian: chiudere (it) Japanese: 閉める (ja) (しめる, shimeru) (transitive), 閉まる (ja) (しまる, shimaru) (intransitive), 閉じる  (ja) (とじる, tojiru) (transitive) Korean: 닫다 (ko) (datda)

Kurdish: Sorani: داخستن (ku) (daxistin) Lao: ອັດ (lo) (át) Latin: claudo (la) Old English: scyttan (ang) Persian: بستن (fa) (bastan) Polish: zamykać (pl) impf., zamknąć (pl) pf. Russian: закрывать (ru) (zakryvát’) impf., закрыть (ru) (zakrýt’) pf. Scottish Gaelic: dùin (gd) Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: затворити (sh) pf. Roman: zatvoriti (sh) pf. Slovak: zavrieť (sk) Slovene: zapreti (sl) Spanish: cerrar (es) Swedish: stänga (sv) Telugu: మూయు (mooyu) Thai: งับ (th) (ngáp), หุบ (th) (hùp), ปิด (th) (pid) Turkish: kapatmak (tr) Ukrainian: зачиняти (uk) (začynjáty) impf., зачинити (uk) (začynýty) pf. Urdu: بند کرنا (ur) (band karnā) Vietnamese: đóng (vi) Welsh: cau (cy)

Etymology 2

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

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ʃʌt/, SAMPA: /SVt/
• Rhymes: -ʌt

Noun

shut (plural shuts)

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

Synonyms

• (alleyway): alley, gennel (Northern Ireland), ginnel (Yorkshire and Lancashire), gitty (East Midlands), jitty (Midlands), passage, snicket (Northern England), wynd (Scotland)

Anagrams

• huts
• STHU
• thus
• tush