Library / English Dictionary

SHUTTER

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

A hinged blind for a window

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("shutter" is a kind of...):

blind; screen (a protective covering that keeps things out or hinders sight)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "shutter"):

deadlight (a strong shutter over a ship's porthole that is closed in stormy weather)

jalousie (a shutter made of angled slats)

Holonyms ("shutter" is a part of...):

double-hung window (a window having two sashes that slide up and down)

Derivation:

shut (move so that an opening or passage is obstructed; make shut)

shutter (close with shutters)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A mechanical device on a camera that opens and closes to control the time of a photographic exposure

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("shutter" is a kind of...):

mechanical device (mechanism consisting of a device that works on mechanical principles)

Holonyms ("shutter" is a part of...):

camera; photographic camera (equipment for taking photographs (usually consisting of a lightproof box with a lens at one end and light-sensitive film at the other))

Derivation:

shut (move so that an opening or passage is obstructed; make shut)

shut (become closed)

shut (prevent from entering; shut out)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Close with shutters

Example:

We shuttered the window to keep the house cool

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "shutter" is one way to...):

close; shut (move so that an opening or passage is obstructed; make shut)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sentence example:

They want to shutter the doors

Derivation:

shutter (a hinged blind for a window)

Credits

 Context examples: 

Had it been ten, Elinor would have been convinced that at that moment she heard a carriage driving up to the house; and so strong was the persuasion that she DID, in spite of the ALMOST impossibility of their being already come, that she moved into the adjoining dressing-closet and opened a window shutter, to be satisfied of the truth.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

I had closed my shutter, laid a mat to the door to prevent the snow from blowing in under it, trimmed my fire, and after sitting nearly an hour on the hearth listening to the muffled fury of the tempest, I lit a candle, took down Marmion, and beginning—I soon forgot storm in music.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Even on Sunday, when it veiled its more florid charms and lay comparatively empty of passage, the street shone out in contrast to its dingy neighbourhood, like a fire in a forest; and with its freshly painted shutters, well-polished brasses, and general cleanliness and gaiety of note, instantly caught and pleased the eye of the passenger.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

An apparatus for taking photographs, generally consisting of a lightproof enclosure having an aperture with a shuttered lens through which the image of an object is focused and recorded on a photosensitive film or plate.

(Camera Device Component, NCI Thesaurus)

He was dazed for a moment, but when he saw the sunlight streaming in through the edges of the shutters he thought he was late, and expressed his fear.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

It was quarter-past ten when she closed her book, fastened the shutters, and retired.

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

Now, would you have the kindness to go into your room and bar your shutters?

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

When I came to Omer and Joram's, I found the shutters up, but the shop door standing open.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Finally he asked the chief clerk to close the iron shutters, and he pointed out to me that they hardly met in the centre, and that it would be possible for anyone outside to see what was going on within the room.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I started from my sleep with horror; a cold dew covered my forehead, my teeth chattered, and every limb became convulsed; when, by the dim and yellow light of the moon, as it forced its way through the window shutters, I beheld the wretch—the miserable monster whom I had created.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)