IdiomDaily Life
English
Englishshut someone up
Meaning: To force someone to stop talking.
Example: “The lawsuit was meant to shut the journalist up.”
Origin: "Shut up" for closing something, including a mouth, is found from the 19th century. Used of a person it is blunt and often rude.
Equivalents in other languages
German: mundtot machen Literally: To make speechless
More English idioms
- rein someone in To bring someone under control.
- keep one's feet on the ground To stay realistic and unaffected by success.
- become second nature To become so familiar that one does it without thinking.
- smell a rat To sense that something dishonest is going on.
- a hard nut to crack A difficult problem, or a person who is hard to deal with.
- have a finger in every pie To be involved in many different things at once.
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Words that look familiar in another language but mean something else entirely.
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