shutter

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun One that shuts, as.
• noun A hinged cover or screen for a window, usually fitted with louvers.
• noun A mechanical device of a camera that controls the duration of a photographic exposure, as by opening and closing to allow light coming through the lens to expose a plate or film.
• noun Music The movable louvers on a pipe organ, controlled by pedals, that open and close the swell box.
• transitive verb To furnish or close with shutters.
• transitive verb To cause to cease operations; close down.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun In founding, a gate or movable partition designed to cut off the runner to a mold from the channel in which molten metal is flowing.
• noun The name given by Inigo Jones, the architect, to the side scenes or slips which he used in his pomps and masques.
• To provide or cover with shutters.
• To separate or hide by shutters.
• noun One who or that which shuts.
• noun Hence, specifically— A frame or panel of wood or iron or other strong material used as a cover, usually for a window, in order to shut out the light, to prevent spectators from seeing the interior, or to serve as a protection for the aperture. There are inside and outside shutters. Inside shutters are usually in several hinged pieces which fold back into a recessed casing in the wall called a boxing. The principal piece is called the front shutter, and the auxiliary piece a back flap. Some shutters are arranged to be opened or closed by a sliding movement either horizontally or vertically, and others, particularly those for shops, are made in sections, so as to be entirely removable from the window. Shutters for shop-fronts are also made to roll up like curtains, to fold like Venetian blinds, etc.
• noun In organ-building, one of the blinds of which the front of the swell-box is made. By means of a foot-lever or pedal the shutters of the box can be opened so as to let the sound out, or closed so as to deaden it.
• noun That which closes or ends.
• noun In photography, a device for opening and again closing a lens mechanically, in order to make an exposure, especially a so-called instantaneous exposure occupying a fraction of a second. The kinds of shutters are innumerable, the simplest being the drop or guillotine shutter, in which a thin perforated piece slides in grooves by gravity when released, so that the perforation in falling passes across the field of the lens. The more mechanically elaborate shutters are actuated by springs, and are commonly so arranged that the speed of the exposure can be regulated.
• noun Evening.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• noun One who shuts or closes.
• noun A movable cover or screen for a window, designed to shut out the light, to obstruct the view, or to be of some strength as a defense; a blind.
• noun A removable cover, or a gate, for closing an aperture of any kind, as for closing the passageway for molten iron from a ladle.
• noun (Photog.) A mechanical device of various forms, attached to the aperture of a camera lens for opening and closing to expose the plate. It is usually designed so that the time during which the aperture is opened may be varied by a manual dial or by some automatic mechanism, thereby allowing proper exposure of a photographic film under different intensities of light.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun usually plural Protective panels, usually wooden, placed over windows to block out the light.
• noun photography The part of a camera that opens for a controlled period of time to let light in during taking a picture.
• verb To close the shutters.
• verb To close up a building for a prolonged period of inoccupancy.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• verb close with shutters
• noun a hinged blind for a window
• noun a mechanical device on a camera that opens and closes to control the time of a photographic exposure