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shuttle
7 dictionary results for: shuttle
Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This
shut·tle       [shuht-l] Pronunciation Key noun, verb, -tled, -tling.
–noun
1.a device in a loom for passing or shooting the weft thread through the shed from one side of the web to the other, usually consisting of a boat-shaped piece of wood containing a bobbin on which the weft thread is wound.
2.the sliding container that carries the lower thread in a sewing machine.
3.a public conveyance, as a train, airplane, or bus, that travels back and forth at regular intervals over a particular route, esp. a short route or one connecting two transportation systems.
4.shuttlecock (def. 1).
5.(often initial capital letter) space shuttle.
–verb (used with object)
6.to cause (someone or something) to move to and fro or back and forth by or as if by a shuttle: They shuttled me all over the seventh floor.
–verb (used without object)
7.to move to and fro: constantly shuttling between city and suburb.

[Origin: bef. 900; ME shotil (n.), OE scytel dart, arrow; c. ON skutill harpoon; akin to shut, shoot]

shut·tle·like, adjective
American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
shut·tle       (shŭt'l)  Pronunciation Key 
n.  
  1. A device used in weaving to carry the woof thread back and forth between the warp threads.
  2. A device for holding the thread in tatting and netting and in a sewing machine.
    1. Regular travel back and forth over an established, often short route by a vehicle.
    2. A vehicle used in such travel: took the shuttle across town.
    3. A route used by a vehicle in such travel: the Washington-New York air shuttle.
  3. A space shuttle.
  4. Travel between disputing parties by a diplomatic intermediary.

v.   shut·tled, shut·tling, shut·tles

v.   intr.
To go, move, or travel back and forth by or as if by a shuttle: business people who shuttle between European capitals.

v.   tr.
  1. To cause to move back and forth frequently.
  2. To transport by or as if by a shuttle: shuttle a scientific payload to an orbiting space station.


[Middle English shutille, from Old English scytel, dart; see skeud- in Indo-European roots.]

shut'tler n.
Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
shuttle  (n.)
O.E. scytel "a dart, arrow," from W.Gmc. *skutilaz (cf. O.N. skutill "harpoon"), from P.Gmc. *skut- "project" (see shoot). The weaving instrument so called (1338) from being "shot" across the threads. In some other languages, the machine takes its name from its resemblance to a boat (cf. L. navicula, Fr. navette, Ger. weberschiff). Sense of "train that runs back and forth" is first recorded 1895, from image of the weaver's instrument's back-and-forth movement over the warp; extended to aircraft 1942, to spacecraft 1969. Hence also shuttlecock (1522).

Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
shuttle  (v.)
1550, "move rapidly to and fro," from shuttle (n.); sense of "transport via a shuttle service" is recorded from 1930.

WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This
shuttle

noun
1. badminton equipment consisting of a ball of cork or rubber with a crown of feathers [syn: shuttlecock
2. public transport that consists of a bus or train or airplane that plies back and forth between two points 
3. bobbin that passes the weft thread between the warp threads 

verb
1. travel back and forth between two points 

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Shuttle

Shut"tle\, n. [Also shittle, OE. schitel, scytyl, schetyl; cf. OE. schitel a bolt of a door, AS. scyttes; all from AS. sce['o]tan to shoot; akin to Dan. skyttel, skytte, shuttle, dial. Sw. skyttel, sk["o]ttel. [root]159. See Shoot, and cf. Shittle, Skittles.]

1. An instrument used in weaving for passing or shooting the thread of the woof from one side of the cloth to the other between the threads of the warp.

Like shuttles through the loom, so swiftly glide My feathered hours. --Sandys.

2. The sliding thread holder in a sewing machine, which carries the lower thread through a loop of the upper thread, to make a lock stitch.

3. A shutter, as for a channel for molten metal. [R.]

Shuttle box (Weaving), a case at the end of a shuttle race, to receive the shuttle after it has passed the thread of the warp; also, one of a set of compartments containing shuttles with different colored threads, which are passed back and forth in a certain order, according to the pattern of the cloth woven.

Shutten race, a sort of shelf in a loom, beneath the warp, along which the shuttle passes; a channel or guide along which the shuttle passes in a sewing machine.

Shuttle shell (Zo["o]l.), any one of numerous species of marine gastropods of the genus Volva, or Radius, having a smooth, spindle-shaped shell prolonged into a channel at each end.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Shuttle

Shut"tle\, v. i. To move backwards and forwards, like a shuttle.

I had to fly far and wide, shutting athwart the big Babel, wherever his calls and pauses had to be. --Carlyle.

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