Other forms: shutdowns
A shutdown is the orderly closing down of a running system. A clean shutdown, emergency shutdown, government shutdown.
Orderliness is the whole point: a proper shutdown finishes what is in progress and writes everything out, which is why pulling the power is different in kind. In American politics a government shutdown is what happens when funding lapses. In industry, a planned shutdown is when maintenance is done. Note shut down, written as two words for the verb.
1nounshutdownThe orderly closing down of a running system.
“Save your work before the computer's automatic shutdown at midnight.”
2nounstoppageA stoppage of operations or funding.
“The factory shutdown left hundreds of workers without jobs.”
shutdown is a closing down.
Deverbal from shut down.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in Computing & Code