shunt
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ʃʌnt/
ipa: /ʃʌnt/
ipa: /ʃənt/
ipa: /ʃant/
rhymes: -ʌnt
Forms: form: shunts
Etymology: From Middle English schonten, schunten (“to jerk, swerve; to dodge, escape”), either:
* possibly a back-formation from Middle English schonen (“to avoid, refuse, hate, fear”), from Old English sċunian, sċyniġan; see shun. Or
* an alteration of Middle English *schunden, *schynden, from Old English sċyndan, sċendan (“to hasten, hurry”) (as in āsċyndan (“to remove, take away”), from Proto-West Germanic *skundijan, from Proto-Germanic *skundijaną (“to impel, hasten”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kewt- (“to rattle, shake”).
* from unrecorded Old English *sċunettan, a derivative of sċunian (“to shun, avoid”).
As regards the noun sense, compare Middle English shunt (“swerve; sudden jerk”), derived from the verb.
Senses: examples: text: Blindside loosie Jerome Kaino got [Conor] Murray after he'd kicked in the 10th minute, then the halfback hurt a wrist after Brodie Retallick gave him a shunt.
ref: 2017 June 28, Kevin Norquay, “Lions tour: Warren Gatland says clown cartoon is part of personal campaign against him”, in Stuff.co.nz, archived from the original on 03 Nov 2017:
glosses: An act of moving (suddenly), as due to a push or shove.
examples: text: The sensibility of a galvanometer may be varied in a very simple manner by the use of what is termed a shunt. A shunt is a resistance coil, or coil of fine wire used to divert some definite portion of a current, taking it past a galvanometer instead of through its coils.
ref: 1873, Fleeming Jenkin, “Galvanometers”, in Electricity and Magnetism, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton and Co. […], §14, page 201:
topics: business
electrical-engineering
electricity
electromagnetism
energy
engineering
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
physics
glosses: A connection used as an alternative path between parts of an electrical circuit.
examples: text: In length, this gun was the same as the French, but weighed 9 cwt. less. It was rifled in six grooves on the shunt plan, in the form in which it has been generally applied to large guns, with the difference that some of the angles of the grooving were rounded off. […] To impede fouling, a slightly greater windage was allowed in the chamber of the shunt gun, the diameter there being 0.04 greater than at the mouth of the bore.
ref: 1865 October, “Rifled Guns and Missiles”, in Colburn’s United Service Magazine and Naval and Military Journal, part III, number CCCCXLIII, London: Hurst and Blackett, publishers, successors to Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 170:
text: The shunt system, of which the 64-pr. is the only example now in the service, has been considered inferior to the Woolwich, because besides being unnecessarily complicated, the grooves which are cut with abrupt sharp angles weaken the gun. […] [I]n the shunt gun, however, in addition to the mere fact of the driving side of the double groove being shallow, and the loading side deep, the two grooves join in one deep one at 2 feet 7.5 inches from the muzzle, […]
ref: 1870, Charles Orde Browne, “Section II. Muzzle-loading Armstrong, Shunt System.”, in Ammunition. A Descriptive Treatise on the Different Projectiles, Charges, Fuzes, &c., at Present in Use for Land and Sea Service, and on Other War Stores Manufactured in the Royal Laboratory, part II (Ammunition for Rifled Ordnance), London: Printed under the superintendence of Her Majesty's Stationery Office by George Edward Eyre and William Spottiswoode, […], →OCLC, page 108:
topics: engineering
firearms
government
military
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
politics
tools
war
weaponry
glosses: The shifting of the studs on a projectile from the deep to the shallow sides of the grooves in its discharge from a shunt gun.
examples: text: Portosystemic shunts can be congenital or acquired with congenital PSS commonly comprising a single communicating vessel between the portal venous circulation and the systemic circulation via the caudal vena cava or azygos vein. Of congenital shunts, 66–75% are extrahepatic. Intrahepatic portosystemic shunts are most commonly identified in larger breeds of dog (though we have also seen a number of terriers with intrahepatic shunts through our clinic).
ref: 2018, Jon[athan David] Wray, “Case 11 Presenting with Mentation Abnormalities”, in Canine Internal Medicine: What’s Your Diagnosis?, Hoboken, N.J.; Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, section C (Hepatobiliary Disease), page 127:
topics: biology
medicine
natural-sciences
pathology
sciences
veterinary
zoology
glosses: An abnormal passage between body channels.
examples: text: We present an extremely rare case of delayed and combined ventriculoperitoneal shunt blockage, viscus perforation and migration into the urethra manifested by a repeated urinary tract infection. This was discovered six months after the shunt was inserted.
ref: 2011 October, T. H. Chen et al., “Combined Ventriculoperitoneal Shunt Blockage, Viscus Perforation and Migration into Urethra, Presenting with Repeated Urinary Tract Infection”, in Annals of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, volume 93, number 7, →DOI, →PMID, abstract, page e151:
topics: medicine
sciences
surgery
glosses: A passage between body channels constructed surgically as a bypass; a tube inserted into the body to create such a passage.
examples: text: These improvements consist, firstly, in a novel construction of apparatus to be attached to or applied upon railways, at those parts termed switches, shunts, or moveable rails, which are commonly used for transferring engines, carriages, or trains, from one line of rails to another, as occasion may require, and which apparatus I call a "switch or shunt protector."
ref: 1838 December 17, John Hawkshaw, “[Recent Patents.] To John Hawkshaw, of Manchester, in the County of Lancaster, Civil Engineer, for His Invention of Certain Improvements in Mechanism or Apparatus Applicable to Railways, and also to Carriages to be Used thereon”, in W[illiam] Newton, editor, The London Journal and Repertory of Arts, Sciences, and Manufactures, volume XV (Conjoined Series), number XCII, London: Published by W. Newton, […], published 1840, →OCLC, page 74:
topics: rail-transport
railways
transport
glosses: A switch on a railway used to move a train from one track to another.
examples: text: At the first race in Brazil, I became involved in a four-car shunt. I won't go into too much detail now, except to say that the accident had nothing to do with me. […] Everyone else was avoiding the accident when [Jos] Verstappen lost control on the grass, came right into me – and off we all went. It was a huge shunt.
ref: 2017, Eddie Irvine, with Maurice Hamilton, “No Big Deal”, in Green Races Red, updated edition, London: CollinsWillow, →ISBN:
topics: road
transport
glosses: A minor collision between vehicles.
Derived terms: Ayrton shunt
backshunt
headshunt
head shunt
mis-shunt
universal shunt