1877. Jowett, Plato, 111. 6. A mere child in argument, and unable to foresee that the next "move" (to use a Platonic expression) will shut him up.
1886-96. Marshall, Pomes [1897], 54. Oh, shut it! Close your mouth until I tell you when.
1888. Runciman, Chequers, 80. Shet your neck.
1892. Kipling, Barrack Room Ballads, 'The Young British Soldier.' You shut up your rag-box, an' 'ark to my lay.
1895. Pocock, Rules of the Game, 1. "Shut your mouth," he said, "or I'll knife you!"
1896. Crane, Maggie, ix. 'Shet yer face, an' come home yeh old fool!' roared Jimmie.
1897. Maugham, Liza of Lambeth, V. Shut it! she answered, cruelly. Ibid., xi. "Shut up!" said Jim. . . . "I shan't shut up."
1901. Troddles and Us, 75. Murray's pleasantry struck us as being untimely, and we told him to shut up.
2. verb. (racing).—See quot.
. . . . . Krik, Guide to the Turf. To SHUT UP . . . to give up, as one horse when challenged by another in a race.
To BE SHUT OF, verb. phr. (once literary: now vulgar).—To be rid of, freed from, quit of. As subs. (Halliwell) = a riddance.
1596. Nashe, Haue with You, To the Reader. And doo what I can, I shall not be shut of him.
1639. Massinger, Unnatural Combat, iii. 1. We are shut of him, He will be seen no more here.
1639. Shirley, Maid's Revenge, ii. 2. We'll bring him out of doors—Would we were shut of him.
d. 1704. L'Estrange [Bartlett]. We must not pray in one breath to find a thief, and in the next to get shut of him.
1847. Chronicles of Pineville, 34. Never mind, doctor, we'll get shut of him.
1848. Mrs. Gaskell., Mary Barton, v. And as for a bad man, one's glad enough to get shut on him.
1888. Boldrewood, Robbery Under Arms, ii. Father was one of those people that gets shut of a deal of trouble in this world by always sticking to one thing.
1891. Stevenson, Kidnapped, 96. What we want is to be shut of him.
1896. Kipling, The Big Drunk Draf'. I never knew how I liked the gray garron till I was shut of him an' Asia.
Shuts, subs. (Christ's Hospital).—A
hoax, a sell (q.v.). As intj.
= 'Sold again!'
Shutters. To put up the
shutters, verb. phr. (pugilists').—1.
To 'bung up' an opponent's
eyes.
2. (common).—To announce oneself a bankrupt; to stop payment.
Shutter-racket, subs. phr. (old).—'The
practice of robbing houses
or shops, by boring a hole in the
window shutters and taking out a
pane of glass' (Grose and Vaux).
Shuttle-bag. To swallow the
shuttle-bag, verb. phr. (provincial).—To
get husky.
Shuttle-head (-brain, or -wit),
subs. phr. (old).—An eccentric;
a scattering. Whence shuttle-headed,
&c. = flighty, scatter-brained;
shuttleness = rashness,
thoughtlessness. Also SHITTLE-HEAD,
&c.
c. 1440. Paston Letters, 1. 69. I am aferd that Jon of Sparham is . . . SCHYTTL-WYTTED.
1564. Udall, Erasmus, 341. Metellus was so shuttle-brained that even in the middes of his tribuneship he left his office in Rome.
1580. Baret, Alvearie [HALLIWELL.]. The vain shittlenesse of an unconstant head.
1590. Greene, Quip for Upstart Courtier [Harl. Misc., v. 417]. Upstart boies, and shittle-witted fools.
