shaft

From Middle English schaft, from Old English sċeaft, from Proto-West Germanic *skaft, from Proto-Germanic *skaftaz. Cognate with Dutch schacht, German German Schaft, Swedish skaft.

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.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ʃɑːft/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ʃæft/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɑːft

shaft (plural shafts)

1. (obsolete) The entire body of a long weapon, such as an arrow.
   • 1545, Roger Ascham, Toxophilus:

     A shaft hath three principal parts, the stele, the feathers, and the head.

3. The long, narrow, central body of a spear, arrow, or javelin.

   Synonym: stale

   Her hand slipped off the javelin's shaft towards the spearpoint and that's why her score was lowered.

   • 1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], chapter II, in The Amateur Poacher, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC:

     Orion hit a rabbit once; but though sore wounded it got to the bury, and, struggling in, the arrow caught the side of the hole and was drawn out. […]. Ikey the blacksmith had forged us a spearhead after a sketch from a picture of a Greek warrior; and a rake-handle served as a shaft.

4. (by extension) Anything cast or thrown as a spear or javelin.
   • 1667, John Milton, “Book I”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC:

     […] and the Thunder, / Wing'd with red Lightning and impetuous rage, / Perhaps hath ſpent his ſhafts […]

   • 1800, Vicesimus Knox, “Essay LXXIV”, in Essays Moral and Literary, volume II, page 100:

     The correction of theſe will reſtore its proper dignity to the ſtudy of antiquities, and cauſe the ſhafts of ridicule, which have been ſucceſsfully thrown at it, to recoil.

5. Any long thin object, such as the handle of a tool.
   2. One of the poles between which a draught animal is harnessed to a vehicle.

      Synonyms: pole, carriage pole

      • 1967, Barbara Sleigh, Jessamy, Sevenoaks, Kent: Bloomsbury, published 1993, →ISBN, page 57:

        While Kitto chatted to William, Jessamy looked with interest at the dog cart. It had a pair of high wooden wheels with two seats back to back above. Between the shafts the bay mare tossed her head and fidgeted on the cobbles.

   4. A rotating machine element used to transmit power; a driveshaft
      • 2013 July-August, Lee S. Langston, “The Adaptable Gas Turbine”, in American Scientist:

        Turbines have been around for a long time—windmills and water wheels are early examples. The name comes from the Latin turbo, meaning vortex, and thus the defining property of a turbine is that a fluid or gas turns the blades of a rotor, which is attached to a shaft that can perform useful work.

   6. (lacrosse) The long narrow body of a lacrosse stick.

      Sarah, if you wear gloves your hands might not slip on your shaft and you can up your game, girl!

6. (literary) A beam or ray of light.

   Isn't that shaft of light from that opening in the cave beautiful?

   • 1912, Willa Cather, The Bohemian Girl::

     They were a fine company of old women, and a Dutch painter would have loved to find them there together, where the sun made bright patches on the floor and sent long, quivering shafts of gold through the dusky shade up among the rafters.

8. The main axis of a feather.

   Synonym: rachis

   I had no idea that they removed the feathers' shafts to make the pillows softer!

9. A vertical or inclined passage sunk into the earth as part of a mine.

   Synonym: mineshaft

   Your grandfather used to work with a crane hauling ore out of the gold mine's shafts.

11. A vertical passage housing a lift or elevator.

    Synonym: liftshaft

    Darn it, my keys fell through the gap and into the elevator shaft.

12. A ventilation or heating conduit.

    Synonym: airduct

    Our parrot flew into the air duct and got stuck in the shaft.

13. (architecture) Any column or pillar, particularly the body of a column between its capital and pedestal.
    • 1847, R[alph] W[aldo] Emerson, “Hymn […] ”, in Poems, Boston, Mass.: James Munroe and Company, →OCLC, page 251:

      Spirit, that made those heroes dare / To die, or leave their children free / Bid Time and Nature gently spare / The shaft we raise to thee.

14. (anatomy) The main cylindrical part of the penis.

    The female labia minora is homologous to the penis shaft skin of males.

15. The chamber of a blast furnace.
16. (meteorology) A relatively small area of precipitation that an onlook can discern from the dry surrounding area.
17. (slang) An act of sexual intercourse.
    • 2012, Najat El Hachmi, The Last Patriarch (page 286)

      I sat on the sofa, got up, changed channels and doubted there'd be time to have a quick shaft and feign an orgasm today.

shaft (third-person singular simple present shafts, present participle shafting, simple past and past participle shafted)

1. (transitive, slang) To fuck over; to cause harm to, especially through deceit or treachery.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:deceive

   Your boss really shafted you by stealing your idea like that.

   • 1992, “Crackers And Cheese”, performed by Eminem:

     Who can I trust after repeatedly being shafted

2. (transitive) To equip with a shaft.
3. (transitive, slang) To fuck; to have sexual intercourse with.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:copulate with

   Turns out my roommate was shafting my girlfriend.

   • 1994 [1993], Irvine Welsh, Trainspotting, London: Minerva, →ISBN, page 252:

     Which grotesque auld hing-oot will the shrivelled post-menopausal slag want tae shaft? Stay tuned.

   • 2018, Sarah Phelps, 23:00, in Ordeal by Innocence, episode 2, spoken by Mickey Argyle (Christian Cooke):

     Well at least I can get it up. No wonder Mary's going out of her head. Stuck with you sponging off her and not even a decent shafting for her trouble.

• Faths, hafts

From Old English sċeaft (“shaft”).

shaft

1. alternative form of schaft (“shaft”)
   • c. 1343-1400, Geoffrey Chaucer:

     His sleep, his meat, his drink, is him bereft, / That lean he wax, and dry as is a shaft.

From Old English sċeaft (“creation”).

shaft

1. alternative form of schaft (“creation”)