verb, shut, shut⋅ting, adjective, noun | 1. | to put (a door, cover, etc.) in position to close or obstruct. |
| 2. | to close the doors of (often fol. by up): to shut up a shop for the night. |
| 3. | to close (something) by bringing together or folding its parts: Shut your book. Shut the window! |
| 4. | to confine; enclose: to shut a bird into a cage. |
| 5. | to bar; exclude: They shut him from their circle. |
| 6. | to cause (a business, factory, store, etc.) to end or suspend operations: He shut his store, sold his house, and moved away. We're shutting the office for two weeks in June. |
| 7. | to bolt; bar. |
| 8. | to become shut or closed; close. |
| 11. | the act or time of shutting or closing. |
| 12. | the line where two pieces of welded metal are united. |
| 13. | shut down,
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| 14. | shut in,
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| 15. | shut of, Informal. free of; rid of: He wished he were shut of all his debts. |
| 16. | shut off,
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| 17. | shut out,
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| 18. | shut up,
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shut out
Exclude, deny entry to, block, as in Anyone convicted of a crime is shut out from the legal profession, or These curtains shut out all the light. [Late 1300s]
Prevent an opponent from scoring, as in They were shut out of the last two games, or Reagan shut out Ford in the Texas primary in 1976. Originating in baseball about 1880, this usage was later transferred to other sports and then even broader usage.