shut off

See also: shutoff and shut-off

English

Verb

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

1. (transitive, intransitive) To stop or turn off by closing something, such as a valve.
   • 1950 January, David L. Smith, “A Runaway at Beattock”, in Railway Magazine, page 54:

     Richardson dropped into the six-foot between the two engines, ran for a few yards, grabbed Mitchell's engine, and swung himself up. Mitchell had got to his feet by this time, but he made no move. Richardson shut off steam, reversed her, and brought her to a stand.

2. (transitive, intransitive) To switch off.
   • 2006, Alfie Kohn, Unconditional Parenting: Moving from Rewards and Punishments to Love and Reason, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 97:

     “You can forget about going to that party on Saturday if you don't shut off that video game right now!”

3. (transitive, intransitive) To separate; to isolate.

   After his wife died, he shut himself off from the world.

   • 2021 December 15, Robin Leleux, “Awards honour the best restoration projects: The Bam Nuttall Partnership Award: Kilmarnock”, in RAIL, number 946, page 58:

     In the latter years of its existence, BR was rationalising its estate by pulling down station buildings which were too large for its modern operational needs, or by shutting off parts of them when demolition was not an option. Kilmarnock station falls into this latter category. It dominates the townscape, but its operational importance has seriously diminished since electrification of the West Coast Main Line.

Antonyms

• keep on, leave on, start up, turn on

Derived terms

• shutoff (noun)

 

Related terms

• shutdown (noun)
• shut down (verb)