Crossword Genius

Close call with nothing to lose (4)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

shut

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'close' is the definition.
(I know that close can be written as shut)

'call with nothing to lose' is the wordplay.
'call' becomes 'shu' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'with' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'nothing' becomes 'O' (looks like zero - 0).
'lose' is a deletion indicator.
'to' with 'o' taken out is 't'.
'shu'+'t'='SHUT'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for shut that I've seen before include "not accepting visitors" , "See 19" , "Push to" , "Slam" , "Closed" .)

I've seen this clue in The Guardian.
Want a hint initially instead of a full solution? Install my app