shut-in

[ shuht-in ]

adjective

1. confined to one's home, a hospital, etc., as from illness.
2. Psychiatry. disposed to desire solitude; withdrawn; asocial.
3. (of an oil or gas well) temporarily sealed up.

noun

1. a person confined by infirmity or disease to the house, a hospital, etc.
2. Also called shut-in well. an oil or gas well that has been closed down.

shut-in

noun

1. 1. a person confined indoors by illness
   2. ( as modifier )

      a shut-in patient

2. psychiatry a condition in which the person is highly withdrawn and unable to express his own feelings See also schizoid

Word History and Origins

Origin of shut-in¹

1840–50, Americanism; adj., noun use of verb phrase shut in

Example Sentences

Take Hulga, the one-legged shut-in in “Good Country People.”

From The Daily Beast

She may have thought teaching her shut-in son to shoot was therapeutic.

From The Daily Beast

The wool slippers in her work-basket she had finished to-day for a Shut-In birthday gift next month.

From Project Gutenberg

The thoughts awakened by the sight of the shut-in girls were not happy ones.

From Project Gutenberg

Mrs. Wood was diving into a partly shut-in place, where it was not so light, and where the nests were.

From Project Gutenberg

They filled the shut-in room with their vile humming; they swarmed everywhere in the half light.

From Project Gutenberg

This may sound very foolish, as I know that writers have many letters from the public, but we shut-in people have moods.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• circumscribed
• cramped
• imprisoned
• restrained
• restricted