Link Centre Dictionary

shaft

UK/ˈʃɑːft/ US/ˈʃɐːft/ fairly common literary slang
noun (12) verb (2)

noun

1.

a line that forms the length of an arrow pointer

2.

an aggressive remark directed at a person like a missile and intended to have a telling effect

  • “his parting shot was”
  • “";”
  • “;”
Synonyms
3.

a long rod or pole (especially the handle of an implement or the body of a weapon like a spear or arrow)

4.
5.

the main (mid) section of a long bone

Synonyms
6.
7.

a long pointed rod used as a weapon

Synonyms
8.
9.

(architecture) upright consisting of the vertical part of a column

Synonyms
10.

a vertical passage into a mine

11.

a revolving rod that transmits power or motion

Synonyms
12.

the hollow shaft of a feather

Synonyms

verb

1.

equip with a shaft

2.

Origin

From Middle English chafte, saft, scaft, schaft, schafte, scheft, shaffet, shaft, from Old English sċeaft, from Proto-West Germanic *skaft, from Proto-Germanic *skaftaz (“shaft”), from Proto-Indo-European *skeh₂p- (“club, rod, shaft, staff”). Cognates Cognate with Dutch schacht (“shaft”), German Schaft (“shaft”), Low German Schacht, Skacht (“shaft; cane, stick; beating”), Danish, Icelandic, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish skaft (“handle; stem; shaft”); also Latin scapus (“stalk, stem; shaft”), Greek σκήπτρο (skíptro, “sceptre”), Albanian shkop (“staff, stick”), Belarusian кап'ё (kapʺjó, “spear”), Bulgarian ко́пие (kópie, “spear”), Czech kopí (“spear”), Macedonian копје (kopje, “spear”), Polish kopia (“spear”), Russian копьё (kopʹjó, “spear”), Serbo-Croatian ко̏пље, kȍplje (“spear”), Slovak kopija (“spear”), Slovene kopje (“javelin”). 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.

Phrases

  • angle shaft
  • cardan shaft
  • counter shaft
  • drive shaft
  • driving shaft
  • elevator shaft
  • equivalent shaft horsepower

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WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.