1 (often in compounds) a long, narrow, usually vertical passage in a building or underground, used especially for a lift/elevator or as a way of allowing air in or out:
a lift / elevator shaft * a mineshaft * a ventilation shaft
2 the long narrow part of an arrow, hammer, GOLFCLUB, etc:
The clubs are fitted with graphite shafts.
3 (often in compounds) a metal bar that joins parts of a machine or an engine together, enabling power and movement to be passed from one part to another:
a gear / propeller shaft
seealsoCAMSHAFT, CRANKSHAFT
4 [usuallypl.] either of the two poles at the front of a carriage or CART between which a horse is fastened in order to pull it
5 ~ of light, sunlight, etc. (literary) a narrow beam of light:
A shaft of moonlight fell on the lake. * (figurative) a shaft of inspiration
6 ~ of pain, fear, etc. (literary) a sudden strong feeling of pain, etc. that travels through your body:
Shafts of fear ran through her as she heard footsteps behind her.
7 ~ of sth (formal) a clever remark that is intended to upset or annoy sb:
a shaft of wit / criticism
IDIOMS
give sb the shaft (AmE, informal) to treat sb unfairly
verb [VN] (informal) to treat sb unfairly or cheat them
Rate this entry
About this entry
This is a English–English dictionary entry.
Sourced from Main Dictionary in Lughet's collection.
This word also appears under other sources in Lughet's collection — see the list below.
This entry for shaft is sourced from Main Dictionary, one of the dictionaries and corpora merged into Lughet.
Is shaft a noun, verb, or something else?
In this entry, shaft is tagged as noun.
Does shaft appear elsewhere on Lughet?
Yes — shaft appears under other sources or language pairs in Lughet's collection. See the list below.
What is Lughet?
Lughet is a free trilingual dictionary covering nearly five million entries across Uyghur, Chinese, and English, drawn from more than ten source dictionaries and corpora.
