shuts

Shuts is the third-person singular present tense of the verb shut, meaning to cause to close or to stop the operation of something. The word can describe closing physical openings, or ending access or function in a broader sense. The base verb shut has past and past participle forms shut, and the present participle shutting.

It is transitive, taking a direct object in sentences like "She shuts the door" or "The lid shuts automatically." It can also appear intransitively in phrases such as "the shop shuts at six" or "the gate shuts behind you," where the subject performs the closing without a direct object. In phrasal usage, it combines with particles to indicate cessation, as in "shuts down" or "shuts off."

Grammatically, shuts agrees with a singular subject; the other present-tense forms are "I shut," "you shut," "he shuts," "we shut," and "they shut." The past tense is "shut," identical to the base form.

Originating in the Germanic family of languages, the verb shut comes from Old English and related forms across the Germanic languages. Its core meaning of closing has remained stable across centuries, though it has extended to figurative uses such as shutting out opportunities or events.