shaft
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ʃɑːft/
ipa: /ʃæft/
rhymes: -ɑːft
Forms: form: shafts
Etymology: From Middle English schaft, from Old English sċeaft, from Proto-West Germanic *skaft, from Proto-Germanic *skaftaz. Cognate with Dutch schacht, German German Schaft, Swedish skaft.
In Early Modern English, shaft referred to the entire body of a long weapon, such that an arrow's “shaft” was composed of its tip, stale, and fletching. Over time, the word came to be used in place of the former stale and lost its original meaning.
Senses: examples: text: A shaft hath three principal parts, the stele, the feathers, and the head.
ref: 1545, Roger Ascham, Toxophilus:
glosses: The entire body of a long weapon, such as an arrow.
examples: text: Her hand slipped off the javelin's shaft towards the spearpoint and that's why her score was lowered.
text: Orion hit a rabbit once; but though sore wounded it got to the bury, and, struggling in, the arrow caught the side of the hole and was drawn out.[…]. Ikey the blacksmith had forged us a spearhead after a sketch from a picture of a Greek warrior; and a rake-handle served as a shaft.
ref: 1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], chapter II, in The Amateur Poacher, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC:
synonyms: stale
glosses: The long, narrow, central body of a spear, arrow, or javelin.
examples: text: […]and the Thunder, / Wing'd with red Lightning and impetuous rage, / Perhaps hath ſpent his ſhafts […]
ref: 1667, John Milton, “Book I”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC:
text: The correction of theſe will reſtore its proper dignity to the ſtudy of antiquities, and cauſe the ſhafts of ridicule, which have been ſucceſsfully thrown at it, to recoil.
ref: 1800, Vicesimus Knox, “Essay LXXIV”, in Essays Moral and Literary, volume II, page 100:
glosses: Anything cast or thrown as a spear or javelin.
examples: text: While Kitto chatted to William, Jessamy looked with interest at the dog cart. It had a pair of high wooden wheels with two seats back to back above. Between the shafts the bay mare tossed her head and fidgeted on the cobbles.
ref: 1967, Barbara Sleigh, Jessamy, Sevenoaks, Kent: Bloomsbury, published 1993, →ISBN, page 57:
glosses: Any long thin object, such as the handle of a tool.
One of the poles between which a draught animal is harnessed to a vehicle.
synonyms: pole
carriage pole
examples: text: Turbines have been around for a long time—windmills and water wheels are early examples. The name comes from the Latin turbo, meaning vortex, and thus the defining property of a turbine is that a fluid or gas turns the blades of a rotor, which is attached to a shaft that can perform useful work.
ref: 2013 July-August, Lee S. Langston, “The Adaptable Gas Turbine”, in American Scientist:
glosses: Any long thin object, such as the handle of a tool.
A rotating machine element used to transmit power; a driveshaft
examples: text: Sarah, if you wear gloves your hands might not slip on your shaft and you can up your game, girl!
topics: ball-games
games
hobbies
lacrosse
lifestyle
sports
glosses: Any long thin object, such as the handle of a tool.
The long narrow body of a lacrosse stick.
examples: text: Isn't that shaft of light from that opening in the cave beautiful?
text: They were a fine company of old women, and a Dutch painter would have loved to find them there together, where the sun made bright patches on the floor and sent long, quivering shafts of gold through the dusky shade up among the rafters.
ref: 1912, Willa Cather, The Bohemian Girl::
glosses: A beam or ray of light.
examples: text: I had no idea that they removed the feathers' shafts to make the pillows softer!
synonyms: rachis
glosses: The main axis of a feather.
examples: text: Your grandfather used to work with a crane hauling ore out of the gold mine's shafts.
synonyms: mineshaft
glosses: A vertical or inclined passage sunk into the earth as part of a mine.
examples: text: Darn it, my keys fell through the gap and into the elevator shaft.
synonyms: liftshaft
glosses: A vertical passage housing a lift or elevator.
examples: text: Our parrot flew into the air duct and got stuck in the shaft.
synonyms: airduct
glosses: A ventilation or heating conduit.
examples: text: Spirit, that made those heroes dare / To die, or leave their children free / Bid Time and Nature gently spare / The shaft we raise to thee.
ref: 1847, R[alph] W[aldo] Emerson, “Hymn […] ”, in Poems, Boston, Mass.: James Munroe and Company, →OCLC, page 251:
topics: architecture
glosses: Any column or pillar, particularly the body of a column between its capital and pedestal.
examples: text: The female labia minora is homologous to the penis shaft skin of males.
topics: anatomy
medicine
sciences
glosses: The main cylindrical part of the penis.
glosses: The chamber of a blast furnace.
topics: climatology
meteorology
natural-sciences
glosses: A relatively small area of precipitation that an onlook can discern from the dry surrounding area.
examples: text: Eight shafts are required to weave this structure. If you have four shafts, you may weave something similar by threading alternate blocks to plain weave and 2/2 basket.
ref: 1990, Sharon Alderman, A Handweaver's Notebook, →ISBN, page 93:
topics: business
manufacturing
textiles
weaving
synonyms: harness
glosses: A component of a loom which holds the heddles and is raised by treadles to create the shed.
examples: text: I sat on the sofa, got up, changed channels and doubted there'd be time to have a quick shaft and feign an orgasm today.
ref: 2012, Najat El Hachmi, The Last Patriarch (page 286)
glosses: An act of sexual intercourse.
Derived terms: aftershaft
airshaft
angle shaft
backshaft
brakeshaft
camshaft
cardan shaft
Cardan shaft
clutchshaft
cockshaft
countershaft
counter shaft
crankshaft
driveshaft
drive shaft
driving shaft
dropshaft
elevator shaft
equivalent shaft horsepower
foreshaft
get the shaft
give someone the shaft
hail shaft
hairshaft
half shaftradial shaft seal
jackshaft
liftshaft
line shaft
Microshaft
midshaft
mineshaft
mine shaft
propeller shaft
propshaft
prop shaft
reversing shaft
rock shaft
shaft alley
shaft bow
shaft cave
shaft encoder
shaft furnace
shaft horsepower
shaftless
shaftlike
shaftman
shaftment
shaftwork
spearshaft
sunshaft
ventilating shaft
ventilation shaft
view shaft