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The Collaborative International Dictionary
To shut out

Shut \Shut\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Shut; p. pr. & vb. n. Shutting.] [OE. shutten, schutten, shetten, schitten, AS. scyttan to shut or lock up (akin to D. schutten, G. sch["u]tzen to protect), properly, to fasten with a bolt or bar shot across, fr. AS. sce['o]tan to shoot. [root]159. See Shoot.]

  1. To close so as to hinder ingress or egress; as, to shut a door or a gate; to shut one's eyes or mouth.

  2. To forbid entrance into; to prohibit; to bar; as, to shut the ports of a country by a blockade.

    Shall that be shut to man which to the beast Is open?
    --Milton.

  3. To preclude; to exclude; to bar out. ``Shut from every shore.''
    --Dryden.

  4. To fold together; to close over, as the fingers; to close by bringing the parts together; as, to shut the hand; to shut a book. To shut in.

    1. To inclose; to confine. ``The Lord shut him in.''
      --Cen. vii. 16.

    2. To cover or intercept the view of; as, one point shuts in another. To shut off.

      1. To exclude.

      2. To prevent the passage of, as steam through a pipe, or water through a flume, by closing a cock, valve, or gate. To shut out, to preclude from entering; to deny admission to; to exclude; as, to shut out rain by a tight roof. To shut together, to unite; to close, especially to close by welding. To shut up.

        1. To close; to make fast the entrances into; as, to shut up a house.

        2. To obstruct. ``Dangerous rocks shut up the passage.''
          --Sir W. Raleigh.

    3. To inclose; to confine; to imprison; to fasten in; as, to shut up a prisoner.

      Before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed.
      --Gal. iii. 23.

    4. To end; to terminate; to conclude.

      When the scene of life is shut up, the slave will be above his master if he has acted better.
      --Collier.

    5. To unite, as two pieces of metal by welding.

    6. To cause to become silent by authority, argument, or force.

Usage examples of "to shut out".

Any feelings I might have had for her as a kid were part of what I tried to shut out.

Ross threw his arm over his eyes to shut out the intolerable brilliance of that thrust and counter.

Sticking his fingers in his ears to shut out the distant sound of cheering from the game fields, Chernon began his ritual of contempt for the ordinances of the women.

If she hadn't closed her inner barriers so tightly in order to shut out the frustrated bleating of her students, she would have felt him the moment he walked into her house.

Most of them she managed to shut out by squeezing her mind shut like eyes and hanging on to the spell.

His unprotected eyes squeezed together to shut out the unbearably bright light, but he could still make out things in his immediate vicinity.

He wanted a time of quiet, or the ability to shut out the lingering tumult in his mind.

Her firm belief in the supernatural filled her with grim forebodings, and she tried in vain to shut out her fears by sleep.

She wanted to shut out the sight, but her eyes refused to leave the screen.

But he neither dosed his eyes to shut out the horror, nor did he get sick to his stomach.

He could have cast a bubble of silence around them to shut out the noise, but he really didn't want to use any more magick than he had to.

Crusher tried to shut out the chaos so she could concentrate on closing a wound on a Bader woman’.