adj, noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   A person confined to a location, as by illness or infirmity.

   "He visited shut-ins as a good deed."

2. 2
   someone who is incapacitated by a chronic illness or injury wordnet
3. 3
   A narrow river gorge confined by resistant rock layers; a type of rock formation in which a stream is confined to a narrow bed of resistant stone.

   "A shut-in is a geological feature similar to a gorge that “shuts-in” the river."

Adjective

1. 1
   Confined to a location, as by infirmity or illness. not-comparable

Adjective

1. 1
   confined usually by illness wordnet
2. 2
   somewhat introverted wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

anchoritearthriticasceticbarredbeleagueredbeset

Example

More examples

"He visited shut-ins as a good deed."

Etymology

Deverbal from shut in.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.