shut up phrasal verb ( see also ↑ shut )
1 . shut up! spoken not polite used to tell someone to stop talking SYN be quiet! :
Oh, shut up! I don’t want to hear your excuses.
Just shut up and listen.
shut up! about
Shut up about your stupid dog, okay!
2 . shut (somebody) up informal to stop talking or be quiet, or to make someone do this:
I can’t stand that woman. She never shuts up.
shut (somebody) up about
I wish you’d shut up about Chris.
I only said that to shut her up.
3 . shut somebody up to keep someone in a place away from other people, and prevent them from leaving
shut somebody up in
I’ve had a terrible cold and been shut up in my room for a week.
Was there any need to keep us shut up here?
4 . shut something ↔ up to close a shop, room etc so that people cannot get into it:
Bernadette cleaned the attic and then shut it up for another year.
5 . shut up shop British English informal to close a business or stop working, at the end of the day or permanently