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shut up
verb
(tr) to prevent all access to
(tr) to confine or imprison
informalto cease to talk or make a noise or cause to cease to talk or make a noise: often used in commands
(intr) (of horses in a race) to cease through exhaustion from maintaining a racing pace
Idioms and Phrases
Imprison, confine, enclose, as in The dog was shut up in the cellar for the night , or She shut up her memories and never talked about the past . [c. 1400]
Close completely, as in The windows were shut up tightly so no rain came in . [Early 1500s] This usage also occurs in shut up shop , meaning “close the premises of a business,” as in It's late, let's shut up shop now . [Late 1500s] Also see close up , def. 3.
Cause someone to stop speaking, silence someone, as in It's time someone shut him up . [Early 1800s]
Stop speaking, as in I've told you what I think and now I'll shut up . This usage also occurs as a rather rude imperative, as in Shut up! You've said enough . [First half of 1800s]
Example Sentences
She said that agents told her to “shut up” as she was being arrested and that she started “panicking and vomiting and drowning in my own vomit,” during her arrest.
"All the boos are words, but actions speak louder than words," Paul said, telling the crowd to "shut up", with some expletives.
This reaction is an unfortunate relic of the internet, where people too dim to know better feel free to opine, whereas many people with more going on upstairs have the sense to shut up.
In any case, humans are likely to have the last word on the em dash, if only because we’ll never shut up about it.
Said board member Tanya Ortiz Franklin: “This isn’t about keeping our community safe. This is about a backwards belief about who belongs and who should be pushed out, locked up and shut up.”
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