SHUT UP

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does shut up mean? 

• SHUT UP (adjective)
  The adjective SHUT UP has 1 sense:

1. closely confined

  Familiarity information: SHUT UP used as an adjective is very rare.

• SHUT UP (verb)
  The verb SHUT UP has 3 senses:

1. refuse to talk or stop talking; fall silent

2. place in a place where something cannot be removed or someone cannot escape

3. cause to be quiet or not talk

  Familiarity information: SHUT UP used as a verb is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SHUT UP (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Closely confined

Synonyms:

pent; shut up

Similar:

confined (not free to move about)

• SHUT UP (verb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Refuse to talk or stop talking; fall silent

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Synonyms:

be quiet; belt up; button up; clam up; close up; dummy up; keep mum; shut up

Context example:

The children shut up when their father approached

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Sense 2

Meaning:

Place in a place where something cannot be removed or someone cannot escape

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Synonyms:

lock; lock away; lock in; lock up; put away; shut away; shut up

Context example:

She locked her jewels in the safe

Hypernyms (to "shut up" is one way to...):

confine (prevent from leaving or from being removed)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody
Somebody ----s somebody PP
Somebody ----s something PP

Sense 3

Meaning:

Cause to be quiet or not talk

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

hush; hush up; quieten; shut up; silence; still

Context example:

Please silence the children in the church!

Hypernyms (to "shut up" is one way to...):

conquer; stamp down; subdue; suppress (bring under control by force or authority)

Cause:

hush (become quiet or still; fall silent)

Verb group:

hush; pipe down; quiesce; quiet; quiet down; quieten (become quiet or quieter)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "shut up"):

shush (silence (someone) by uttering 'shush!')

calm down; lull (become quiet or less intensive)

shout down (silence or overwhelm by shouting)

gag; muzzle (prevent from speaking out)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody

 Context examples 

So I have to stay shut up in these rooms all day, and it gets tiresome.

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

You shut up the windows and doors the night before.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I've had a bad cold, and been shut up a week.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

I was shut up in a room where there is a ghost till after dark.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Mr. Darcy called, and was shut up with him several hours.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

"Oh, shut up!" Scott cried out through the darkness.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

It is bad for him, I know, to be shut up as he is; but what can we do?

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

I believe I was half an hour this morning shut up with my housekeeper.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

But with all that, he minded people less and seemed shut up in his own thoughts and rather wandering.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

The garden had run wild, and half the windows of the house were shut up.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)