shaft
Part of speech: noun
verb
Morphological type: simple
Topics: anatomy
architecture
ball-games
business
climatology
games
hobbies
lacrosse
lifestyle
manufacturing
medicine
meteorology
natural-sciences
sciences
sports
textiles
weaving
Etymology: From Middle English schaft, from Old English sċeaft, from Proto-West Germanic *skaft, from Proto-Germanic *skaftaz. Cognate with Dutch schacht, German Schaft, Danish, Icelandic, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and 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.
Inflected forms:
form: shafts
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: shafts
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: shafting
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: shafted
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: shafted
pos: verb
tags: past
Senses:
gloss: The entire body of a long weapon, such as an arrow.
pos: noun
tags: obsolete
examples: A shaft hath three principal parts, the stele, the feathers, and the head.
gloss: The long, narrow, central body of a spear, arrow, or javelin.
pos: noun
examples: Her hand slipped off the javelin's shaft towards the spearpoint and that's why her score was lowered.
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.
gloss: Anything cast or thrown as a spear or javelin.
pos: noun
tags: broadly
examples: […]and the Thunder, / Wing'd with red Lightning and impetuous rage, / Perhaps hath ſpent his ſhafts […]
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.
Moya and her new friend Mamie have been shrieking appropriate quotations at one another, upstairs and down, for days past. Of course, I didn't see the exact point of the various shafts of wit until now, but this is evidently what was brewing.
gloss: Any long thin object, such as the handle of a tool.
pos: noun
examples: 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.
gloss: Any long thin object, such as the handle of a tool.
pos: noun
examples: 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.
gloss: Any long thin object, such as the handle of a tool.
pos: noun
examples: Sarah, if you wear gloves your hands might not slip on your shaft and you can up your game, girl!
gloss: A beam or ray of light.
pos: noun
tags: literary
examples: Isn't that shaft of light from that opening in the cave beautiful?
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.
gloss: The main axis of a feather.
pos: noun
examples: I had no idea that they removed the feathers' shafts to make the pillows softer!
gloss: A vertical or inclined passage sunk into the earth as part of a mine.
pos: noun
examples: Your grandfather used to work with a crane hauling ore out of the gold mine's shafts.
gloss: A vertical passage housing a lift or elevator.
pos: noun
examples: Darn it, my keys fell through the gap and into the elevator shaft.
gloss: A ventilation or heating conduit.
pos: noun
examples: Our parrot flew into the air duct and got stuck in the shaft.
gloss: Any column or pillar, particularly the body of a column between its capital and pedestal.
pos: noun
examples: 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.
gloss: The main cylindrical part of the penis.
pos: noun
examples: The female labia minora is homologous to the penis shaft skin of males.
gloss: The chamber of a blast furnace.
pos: noun
gloss: A relatively small area of precipitation that an onlook can discern from the dry surrounding area.
pos: noun
gloss: A component of a loom which holds the heddles and is raised by treadles to create the shed.
pos: noun
examples: 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.
gloss: An act of sexual intercourse.
pos: noun
tags: slang
examples: 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.
gloss: To fuck over; to cause harm to, especially through deceit or treachery.
pos: verb
tags: slang
transitive
examples: Your boss really shafted you by stealing your idea like that.
Who can I trust after repeatedly being shafted
Their fate will be in each other's hands as they decide whether to share... or to shaft.
gloss: To equip with a shaft.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
gloss: To fuck; to have sexual intercourse with.
pos: verb
tags: slang
transitive
examples: Turns out my roommate was shafting my girlfriend.
Which grotesque auld hing-oot will the shrivelled post-menopausal slag want tae shaft? Stay tuned.
Well at least I can get it up. No wonder Mary's going out of her head. Stuck with you sponging off her and not even a decent shafting for her trouble.
Derived words: aftershaft
airshaft
angle shaft
backshaft
bareshaft
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
layshaft
liftshaft
line shaft
mainshaft
Microshaft
midshaft
mineshaft
mine shaft
nonshaft
prickshaft
propeller shaft
propshaft
prop shaft
reversing shaft
rock shaft
shaft alley
shaft bow
shaft cave
shaft encoder
shaft furnace
shaft horsepower
shafthouse
shaftie
shaftless
shaftlike
shaftman
shaftment
shaftsman
shaftway
shaftwork
shafty
spearshaft
subshaft
sunshaft
turboshaft
ventilating shaft
ventilation shaft
viewshaft
view shaft
windshaft
shafter
Translations:
lang: Bulgarian
word: дръжка на копие
roman: drǎžka na kopie
lang: Chinese Mandarin
word: 杆
roman: gān
lang: Czech
word: násada
lang: Czech
word: dřík
lang: Dutch
word: schacht
lang: Esperanto
word: fusto
lang: Finnish
word: varsi
lang: French
word: hampe
lang: Galician
word: hasta
lang: German
word: Schaft
lang: Greek
word: στέλεχος
roman: stélechos
lang: Ancient Greek
word: κῆλον
roman: kêlon
lang: Hungarian
word: nyél
lang: Hungarian
word: szár
lang: Italian
word: lancia
lang: Macedonian
word: ра́чка
roman: ráčka
lang: Macedonian
word: др́шка
roman: dŕška
lang: Māori
word: kawau
lang: Māori
word: kakau
lang: Middle English
word: schaft
lang: Muna
word: duruka
lang: Khiamniungan Naga
word: lāi
lang: Norwegian Bokmål
word: skaft
lang: Old English
word: sċeaft
lang: Persian
word: چوبه
roman: čube
lang: Middle Persian
word: 𐭰𐭥𐭯𐭪
roman: čōbag
lang: Plautdietsch
word: Staum
lang: Plautdietsch
word: Scheft
lang: Portuguese
word: haste
lang: Portuguese
word: cabo
lang: Russian
word: дре́вко
roman: drévko
lang: Spanish
word: asta
lang: Spanish
word: astil
lang: Swedish
word: skaft
lang: Thai
word: เพลา
roman: plaw
lang: Thai
word: ทูบ
roman: tôop
lang: Turkish
word: ok sapı
lang: Ottoman Turkish
word: كوندر
roman: günder, gönder
lang: Ottoman Turkish
word: اوق
roman: ok
lang: Basque
word: haga
lang: Catalan
word: barra
lang: Czech
word: hřídel
lang: Finnish
word: varsi
lang: Finnish
word: aisa
lang: Finnish
word: akseli
lang: Finnish
word: kanki
lang: Galician
word: hasta
lang: German
word: Stange
lang: Greek
word: στειλιάρι
roman: steiliári
lang: Greek
word: στύλος
roman: stýlos
lang: Ancient Greek
word: στελεά
roman: steleá
lang: Ancient Greek
word: κάμαξ
roman: kámax
lang: Hungarian
word: rúd
lang: Irish
word: fearsaid
lang: Italian
word: asta
lang: Italian
word: prolunga
lang: Macedonian
word: о́ска
roman: óska
lang: Māori
word: kakau
lang: Middle English
word: schaft
lang: Plautdietsch
word: Scheft
lang: Portuguese
word: haste
lang: Portuguese
word: cabo
lang: Russian
word: сте́ржень
roman: stérženʹ
lang: Russian
word: ось
roman: osʹ
lang: Scottish Gaelic
word: cas
lang: Scottish Gaelic
word: crann
lang: Slovak
word: os
lang: Slovak
word: hriadeľ
lang: Spanish
word: vara
lang: Spanish
word: barra
lang: Spanish
word: palier
lang: Spanish
word: eje
lang: Spanish
word: caña
lang: Swedish
word: stång
lang: Ottoman Turkish
word: ایك
roman: iğ