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Updated on
16 Oct 2021
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Question about English (US)
What is the difference between To shut someone down and To shut someone out and To shut someone off ?Feel free to just provide example sentences.
What is the difference between To shut someone down and To shut someone out and To shut someone off ?Feel free to just provide example sentences.
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16 Oct 2021
Featured answer
- English (US)
âȘïžTo shut someone down is to reject or strongly discourage someone. It can mean preventing or blocking someone from doing something.
Example:
Every time I tried to talk, he kept shutting me down and wouldnât listen. He talked over my words.
âȘïžTo shut someone out is when you exclude someone from something, or when you block his entrance into some place. It can mean to block someoneâs entrance to your life or feelings too.
Example:
A: Hey, whatâs wrong? You look sad lately.
<Person B is silent>
A: Donât shut me out; I want to know whatâs going on. Is there anything I can do to help?
âȘïžTo shut someone off is when a person chooses not to see or meet someone.
Example:
After his wife passed away, he felt really hurt. He shut himself off from society and moved to the mountains.
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- English (US)
They are sometimes interchangeable.
To shut someone down = to stop a person from doing something.
To shut someone out = to block access for someone.
To shut someone off = the stop someone from speaking.
But like I said, these are very interchangeable as they are all loose idioms.
Example: Jim was acting very rude to all the guests at my party. He tried to punch one of my friends but was quickly shut down by the security guard I hired. Jim was so mad and kept arguing but I shut him off and made him leave. He tried to come back in but I locked the door and he finally realized he was shut out from my party.
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- English (US)
âȘïžTo shut someone down is to reject or strongly discourage someone. It can mean preventing or blocking someone from doing something.
Example:
Every time I tried to talk, he kept shutting me down and wouldnât listen. He talked over my words.
âȘïžTo shut someone out is when you exclude someone from something, or when you block his entrance into some place. It can mean to block someoneâs entrance to your life or feelings too.
Example:
A: Hey, whatâs wrong? You look sad lately.
<Person B is silent>
A: Donât shut me out; I want to know whatâs going on. Is there anything I can do to help?
âȘïžTo shut someone off is when a person chooses not to see or meet someone.
Example:
After his wife passed away, he felt really hurt. He shut himself off from society and moved to the mountains.
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- English (US)
@Lanlan2020 this is a very good answer also. All of these phrases can mean different things depending on what we want to say.
My examples were not the only examples!
These are confusing phrases.
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- English (US)
@Ramekin I liked your answer too. I think the phrases can be interchanged a lot because of how similar they are.
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- Portuguese (Brazil)
@Ramekin@Ramekin@Lanlan2020 Thank you so much. I was just trying to remember the correct phrasal verb for this specific sentence I wanted to form and one of your examples was exactly what I was looking for. You helped a ton!
- Portuguese (Brazil)
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