The action of stopping operations; a closing, of a computer, business, event, etc.
"The factory announced an unexpected shutdown due to a critical power failure."
In plain English: A shutdown is when something stops working completely and stays that way for now.
"The government shutdown caused many federal workers to go home without pay for several days."
Usage: Use shutdown as a noun to describe the act or period when an organization stops operating entirely, such as during labor strikes or financial failures. It is often confused with shut down, which functions only as a verb phrase meaning "to stop operations."
The word shutdown is a deverbial formation derived directly from the phrase shut down. It entered English as a single noun to describe the action of closing or stopping an operation.