shut up

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See also: shutup and shut-up

English

English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

Alternative forms

Pronunciation

  • (UK) IPA(key): /ʃʌt ˈʌp/, ,
  • (US) IPA(key): /ʃʌt ˈʌp/,
  • Audio (AU)(file)

Verb

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

  1. (transitive) To close (a building) so that no one can enter.
  2. (transitive) To terminate (a business).
  3. (transitive) To put (someone or something) in a secure enclosed space, such as a room or container.
    The wicked prince was shut up in the castle dungeon.
    They shut me up in a cupboard, and I could hardly breathe.
    The locomotive had been shut up in a shed for twenty years.
  4. (ergative, often imperative) Of a person, to stop talking or (of a person or thing) making noise.
    You are talking so loud that I can't hear the music – would you mind shutting up?
    He was blathering on about something, but I managed to shut him up.
    Shut up!
    • 1965, Harry S. Truman, 0:20 from the start, in MP2002-442 Former President Truman Discusses Problems Faced During the Potsdam Conference‎, Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives Identifier: 595162:
      This is a quote from the letter: "Went to the Senate yesterday and you should have seen the carrying on they did. I could hardly get them to shut up so I could speak, and they did the same thing after I had finished. Some said the Senate never did carry on so over any president or anybody else."
    • 1995, “Shut Up (And Sleep With Me)”, in Golden Boy, performed by Sin With Sebastian:
      Shut up and sleep with me / Come on, why don't you sleep with me?
    • 2022 August 10, Nigel Harris, “Comment: Striking a fair balance”, in RAIL, number 963, page 3:
      He really doesn't know when to shut up and leave it to those at the heart of the negotiations, who fully understand and appreciate all the nuances, to try and hammer out a deal.
  5. (transitive, slang, dated) To murder, kill.
    I just heard that your wife was trying to shut you up for the insurance money.
    • 2008, BioWare, Mass Effect, Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Citadel:
      Shepard: Why were they threatening you? Who do they work for?
      Dr. Chloe Michel: They work for Fist. They wanted to shut me up, keep me from telling Garrus about the quarian.

Synonyms

Antonyms

Derived terms

Translations

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Adjective

shut up (comparative more shut up, superlative most shut up)

  1. Closed up or off, as in a building that no one is to enter.
    • 2010. Jem (And Sam). Ferdinand Mount.
      She did not come to Court, but she must have been taken to Montagu's house, for the Clerkenwell house was all shut up and was to be sold.
    • 1865. The Wisconsin Farmer, and Northwestern Cultivator, Volume 17. Pg. 75.
      Open sheds are too much exposed to drifting snow, and they cannot be shut up and made warm enough for early lambing.
    • 1880. An Earnest Trifler. Mary Aplin Sprague. Pg. 166.
      Beaudeck is a very shut-up place.

Interjection

shut up

  1. (highly impolite, dismissal) Stop talking, crying, etc.
    Shut up! We're sick of your whining!
  2. (colloquial) I don't believe it!, no way!
    I got accepted to Yale! —Shut up, really? That's awesome!
    • 2004, Tina Fey, Mean Girls (motion picture), spoken by Regina George (Rachel McAdams):
      No, I know what home-school is, I'm not retarded! So you've actually never been to a real school before? Shut up! Shut up!
    • 2007 September 28, Graham Linehan, The IT Crowd, Season 2, Episode 6:
      Jen: Douglas has asked me to be his PA.
      Moss: Oh. My. God! Well, that is something and a half. His PA? How... Whoa! His PA... Shut up! His PA!
      Jen: It means "personal assistant".
      Moss: Thank you. Right, OK. What does that actually involve?

Usage notes

  • When used to mean "stop talking", this expression is rude, forceful and impolite. A neutral alternative is be quiet. When used as an expression of disbelief, it is not usually taken as offensive.
  • The derived phrase shut the fuck up may rarely be shortened to fuck up.

Translations

Anagrams

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