pull the shutters down

English

Etymology

From the practice of stores using roller shutters to protect their entrances when closed.

Pronunciation

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Verb

pull the shutters down (third-person singular simple present pulls the shutters down, present participle pulling the shutters down, simple past and past participle pulled the shutters down)

1. (idiomatic) To shut down, terminate, or ignore.
   • 1987, Eric Taylor, Be Fit Through Your Forties‎^[1], page 68:

     There are times when we have to pull the shutters down on all the irritating aspects of our lives and retreat into the peace and quiet of our own inner dreamworld where the sun is shining and we are doing our own thing.

   • 1997 May, “Apple shuts down Singapore design centre”, in Canadian Computer Wholesaler, page 50:

     The financial crisis at Apple Computer Inc. spilled over to Singapore recently with the company deciding to pull the shutters down on its design center and lay off 101 of its 974 employees in the island #state.

   • 2023 April 18, Pippa Crerar, “UK should not ‘pull the shutters down’ on China, says James Cleverly”, in The Guardian:

     Britain should not “pull the shutters down” on China, as it would be counterproductive to the national interest, the foreign secretary has told the Guardian.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:pull the shutters down.