shaft
a long pole forming the body of various weapons, as lances, halberds, or arrows.
something directed or barbed as in sharp attack: shafts of sarcasm.
a ray or beam: a shaft of sunlight.
a long, comparatively straight handle serving as an important or balancing part of an implement or device, as of a hammer, ax, golf club, or other implement.
Machinery. a rotating or oscillating round, straight bar for transmitting motion and torque, usually supported on bearings and carrying gears, wheels, or the like, as a propeller shaft on a ship, or a drive shaft of an engine.
a flagpole.
Architecture.
that part of a column or pier between the base and capital.
any distinct, slender, vertical masonry feature engaged in a wall or pier and usually supporting or feigning to support an arch or vault.
a monument in the form of a column, obelisk, or the like.
either of the parallel bars of wood between which the animal drawing a vehicle is hitched.
any well-like passage or vertical enclosed space, as in a building: an elevator shaft.
Mining. a vertical or sloping passageway leading to the surface.
Botany. the trunk of a tree.
Zoology. the main stem or midrib of a feather.
Also called leaf. Textiles. the harness or warp with reference to the pattern of interlacing threads in weave constructions (usually used in combination): an eight-shaft satin.
the part of a candelabrum that supports the branches.
Slang: Vulgar. the penis.
Slang: harsh, unfair, or treacherous treatment: I feel like he’s giving me the shaft.
to push or propel with a pole: to shaft a boat through a tunnel.
Slang. to treat in a harsh, unfair, or treacherous manner.
Origin of shaft
1Other words from shaft
- shaftless, adjective
- shaftlike, adjective
- subshaft, noun
- un·shaft·ed, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
British Dictionary definitions for shaft
/ (ʃɑːft) /
the long narrow pole that forms the body of a spear, arrow, etc
something directed at a person in the manner of a missile: shafts of sarcasm
a ray, beam, or streak, esp of light
a rod or pole forming the handle of a hammer, axe, golf club, etc
a revolving rod that transmits motion or power: usually used of axial rotation: Compare rod (def. 9)
one of the two wooden poles by which an animal is harnessed to a vehicle
anatomy
the middle part (diaphysis) of a long bone
the main portion of any elongated structure or part
the middle part of a column or pier, between the base and the capital
a column, obelisk, etc, esp one that forms a monument
architect a column that supports a vaulting rib, sometimes one of a set
a vertical passageway through a building, as for a lift
a vertical passageway into a mine
ornithol the central rib of a feather
an archaic or literary word for arrow
get the shaft US and Canadian slang to be tricked or cheated
slang to have sexual intercourse with (a woman)
slang to trick or cheat
Origin of shaft
1Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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