Definition of "shut-in" [shut-in]

• A person confined indoors by illness or disability. (noun)
• Confined to a home or hospital, as by illness. (adjective)
• Disposed to avoid social contact; excessively withdrawn or introverted. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Doug, too, is a runaway, fleeing a home life that has collapsed after his 15-year-old daughter's death, a trauma that has left his wife Lois (Melissa Leo) an anxiety-ridden shut-in."
• "A mischievous comic tone is also set right away, so that by the time we meet eccentric shut-in heiress Penelope Stamp (a luminous Rachel Weisz), it fits right in."
• "Later tonight the Democrats will have a shut-in where they can all share their most favored quotes from the book given to Obama from Hugo Chavez, "Open Veins of Latin America" and boast about ramming through Sotomayer. windrider"