SHUT IN

Pronunciation (US):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does shut in mean? 

• SHUT IN (verb)
  The verb SHUT IN has 1 sense:

1. surround completely

  Familiarity information: SHUT IN used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SHUT IN (verb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Surround completely

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Synonyms:

close in; enclose; inclose; shut in

Context example:

They closed in the porch with a fence

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

border; environ; ring; skirt; surround (extend on all sides of simultaneously; encircle)

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

bank (enclose with a bank)

hedge; hedge in (enclose or bound in with or as it with a hedge or hedges)

fort; fortify (enclose by or as if by a fortification)

corral (enclose in a corral)

casket (enclose in a casket)

cordon off; rope in; rope off (divide by means of a rope)

fence; fence in (enclose with a fence)

encapsulate (enclose in a capsule or other small container)

dike; dyke (enclose with a dike)

insert; tuck (fit snugly into)

glass; glass in (enclose with glass)

border; frame; frame in (enclose in or as if in a frame)

bury; eat up; immerse; swallow; swallow up (enclose or envelop completely, as if by swallowing)

case; encase; incase (enclose in, or as if in, a case)

enshrine; shrine (enclose in a shrine)

bower; embower (enclose in a bower)

wall in; wall up (enclose with a wall)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

 Context examples 

Shut in, however, by ice, it was impossible to follow his track, which we had observed with the greatest attention.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

He could not have come nearer to her if he would; she was so surrounded and shut in: but she would rather have caught his eye.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

He further gave me leave to get into the inside, as the vehicle was empty: I entered, was shut in, and it rolled on its way.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

A strange thing for a man to carry with him upon a rough expedition, especially as it would not shut in his pocket.

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

Now that very day the hundred years were ended; and as the prince came to the thicket he saw nothing but beautiful flowering shrubs, through which he went with ease, and they shut in after him as thick as ever.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

We all know—because science has vouched for the fact—that there have been toads shut up in rocks for thousands of years, shut in one so small hole that only hold him since the youth of the world.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

For when we were shut in by the wooden apron, the man drove so fast that Flo was frightened, and told me to stop him, but he was up outside behind somewhere, and I couldn't get at him.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Two thousand a year without debt or drawback—except the little love-child, indeed; aye, I had forgot her; but she may be 'prenticed out at a small cost, and then what does it signify? Delaford is a nice place, I can tell you; exactly what I call a nice old fashioned place, full of comforts and conveniences; quite shut in with great garden walls that are covered with the best fruit-trees in the country; and such a mulberry tree in one corner! Lord! how Charlotte and I did stuff the only time we were there! Then, there is a dove-cote, some delightful stew-ponds, and a very pretty canal; and every thing, in short, that one could wish for; and, moreover, it is close to the church, and only a quarter of a mile from the turnpike-road, so 'tis never dull, for if you only go and sit up in an old yew arbour behind the house, you may see all the carriages that pass along.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

Ere long, steps retreated up the gallery towards the third-storey staircase: a door had lately been made to shut in that staircase; I heard it open and close, and all was still.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Night quickly shut in, but to my extreme wonder, I found that the cottagers had a means of prolonging light by the use of tapers, and was delighted to find that the setting of the sun did not put an end to the pleasure I experienced in watching my human neighbours.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)