Shutout

How to spell shutout

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce shutout

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does shutout mean?

1. nounA game or contest in which one side prevents the opposing side from scoring any points.
2. nounAn instance of being barred or excluded from a place, group, or opportunity.

Shutout in a sentence

• The goalkeeper recorded his fourth shutout of the season.

• The union warned that the dispute could lead to a factory shutout.

• The pitcher threw a complete shutout to clinch the title.

• Critics described the policy as a deliberate shutout of small firms.

Where does shutout come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a native English compound, built from the everyday verb 'shut' and the adverb 'out'. The verb 'shut' descends from Old English 'scyttan', meaning to put in a bolt or fasten a door, which is related to the idea of pushing a bar across an opening; 'out' likewise comes from Old English 'ut', meaning away or outside. As an open phrasal verb, 'shut out' has long meant to bar someone from entering or to deny them a share of something. The single-word noun 'shutout' is a much later American sporting coinage from the late nineteenth century, first used in baseball to describe a game in which one team prevents the other from scoring at all. The spelling trap is simply remembering that the noun is written as one solid word, while the action 'to shut out' stays two words.

How the word is built

• shut (to close, block)
• out (adverb of exclusion); a closed compound noun