shutter

Etymology

From shut + -er. Compare shuttle.

noun

1. One who shuts or closes something.
   the openers and shutters of the sluices we believe are basic to the history of mind 1980, Max Scheler, translated by Manfred S. Frings, Problems of a Sociology of Knowledge
   The volunteers consisted of a ringmaster, two experienced young cattlemen to grade the cattle, gate-openers and shutters[…] 1958, Blackwood's Magazine
2. (usually in the plural) Protective panels, usually wooden, placed over windows to block out the light.
3. (photography) The part of a camera, normally closed, that opens for a controlled period of time to let light in when taking a picture.

verb

1. (transitive) To close shutters covering.
   Shutter the windows: there's a storm coming!
2. (transitive, figurative) To close up (a building) for a prolonged period of inoccupancy.
   It took all day to shutter the cabin now that the season has ended.
3. (transitive) To cancel or terminate.
   The US is seeking to get Iran to shutter its nuclear weapons program.
   It has been a dithery decade for nuclear policy. After the 2011 disaster at the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan, several countries began shuttering their reactors and tearing up plans for new ones. December 15 2022, Samanth Subramanian, “Dismantling Sellafield: the epic task of shutting down a nuclear site”, in The Guardian
   After some additional legal wrangling, Morse, exhausted and out of money, withdrew his remaining appeals and shuttered the production in April 1883. 2015, Henry Bial, Playing God: The Bible on the Broadway Stage, page 3