shaft

[shaft, shahft] /ʃæft, ʃɑft/
noun
1.
a long pole forming the body of various weapons, as lances, halberds, or arrows.
2.
something directed or barbed as in sharp attack:
shafts of sarcasm.
3.
a ray or beam:
a shaft of sunlight.
4.
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.
5.
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.
6.
a flagpole.
7.
Architecture.
  1. that part of a column or pier between the base and capital.
  2. any distinct, slender, vertical masonry feature engaged in a wall or pier and usually supporting or feigning to support an arch or vault.
8.
a monument in the form of a column, obelisk, or the like.
9.
either of the parallel bars of wood between which the animal drawing a vehicle is hitched.
10.
any well-like passage or vertical enclosed space, as in a building:
an elevator shaft.
11.
Mining. a vertical or sloping passageway leading to the surface.
12.
Botany. the trunk of a tree.
13.
Zoology. the main stem or midrib of a feather.
14.
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.
15.
the part of a candelabrum that supports the branches.
verb (used with object)
16.
to push or propel with a pole:
to shaft a boat through a tunnel.
17.
Informal. to treat in a harsh, unfair, or treacherous manner.
Origin
before 1000; Middle English; Old English sceaft; cognate with German Schaft; compare Latin scāpus shaft, Greek skêptron scepter
Related forms
shaftless, adjective
shaftlike, adjective
subshaft, noun
unshafted, adjective
Examples from the web for shaft
  • The inflorescence is the flowering part of the plant, and consists of a central shaft called a spadix.
  • The magical shaft of light will soon be gone, the tides will transform the waves, the eons will change the rocks.
  • The walls of the burial shaft were made in part with carved stone slabs, known as stelae.
  • In the steam era a giant engine powered a central rotating shaft, and machine tools ran off pulleys in long linear factories.
  • These parents were standing in the one shaft of light, motionless.
  • Then it magically floats up on a shaft of light and joins the rest of the pod.
  • As they worked, the shaft of light grew to fill a large swath of the valley.
  • The shaft is so slender that it produces a fair amount of tactile feedback when it meets the cue ball.
  • Once the shaft is in place, only a small surface facility will be needed to collect the oil and carry it away.
  • To compensate, engineers engage the gearbox to artificially speed the shaft.
British Dictionary definitions for shaft

shaft

/ʃɑːft/
noun
1.
the long narrow pole that forms the body of a spear, arrow, etc
2.
something directed at a person in the manner of a missile: shafts of sarcasm
3.
a ray, beam, or streak, esp of light
4.
a rod or pole forming the handle of a hammer, axe, golf club, etc
5.
a revolving rod that transmits motion or power: usually used of axial rotation Compare rod (sense 9)
6.
one of the two wooden poles by which an animal is harnessed to a vehicle
7.
(anatomy)
  1. the middle part (diaphysis) of a long bone
  2. the main portion of any elongated structure or part
8.
the middle part of a column or pier, between the base and the capital
9.
a column, obelisk, etc, esp one that forms a monument
10.
(architect) a column that supports a vaulting rib, sometimes one of a set
11.
a vertical passageway through a building, as for a lift
12.
a vertical passageway into a mine
13.
(ornithol) the central rib of a feather
14.
an archaic or literary word for arrow
15.
(US & Canadian, slang) get the shaft, to be tricked or cheated
verb
16.
(slang) to have sexual intercourse with (a woman)
17.
(slang) to trick or cheat
Word Origin
Old English sceaft; related to Old Norse skapt, German Schaft, Latin scāpus shaft, Greek skeptronsceptre, Lettish skeps javelin
Word Origin and History for shaft
n.

Old English sceaft "long, slender rod, staff, pole; spear-shaft; spear," from Proto-Germanic *skaftaz (cf. Old Norse skapt, Old Saxon skaft, Old High German scaft, German schaft, Dutch schacht, not found in Gothic), which some connect with a Germanic passive past participle of PIE root *(s)kep- "to cut, to scrape" (cf. Old English scafan "to shave, scrape, polish") on notion of "tree branch stripped of its bark." But cf. Latin scapus "shaft, stem, shank," Greek skeptron "a staff" (see scepter) which appear to be cognates.

Meaning "beam or ray" (of light, etc.) is attested from c.1300. Sense of "an arrow" is from c.1400; that of "a handle" from 1520s. Mechanical sense is from 1680s. Vulgar slang meaning "penis" first recorded 1719 on notion of "columnar part" (late 14c.); hence probably shaft (v.) and the related noun sense "act of unfair treatment" (1959), though some early sources insist this is from the notion of a "wound."

"long, narrow passage sunk into the earth," early 15c., probably from shaft (n.1) on notion of "long and cylindrical," perhaps as a translation of cognate Low German schacht in this sense (Grimm's suggestion, though OED is against it). Or it may represent a separate (unrecorded) development in Old English directly from Proto-Germanic *skaftaz if the original sense is "scrape, dig." The slang sense of shaft (n.1) is punned upon in country music song "She Got the Gold Mine, I Got the Shaft," a hit for Jerry Reed in 1982.

v.

"treat cruelly and unfairly," by 1958, perhaps from shaft (n.1) with overtones of sodomy. Related: Shafted; shafting.

shaft in Medicine

shaft (shāft)
n.

  1. An elongated rodlike structure, such as the midsection of a long bone.

  2. The section of a hair projecting from the surface of the body.

Slang definitions & phrases for shaft

shaft

verb

To treat unfairly or cruelly; victimize: When do you shaft a pal, when do you hand him the poison cup?/ The oil companies you leased the land to shafted you out of an estimated $650 million

[1950s+; fr the notion of sodomizing a victim]


shaft

noun phrase

Unfair or cruel treatment: Jamaicans have learned from past experience to expect the shaft from foreign journalists (1950s+)

Related Terms

get the shaft, give someone the shaft