Meaning

(obsolete) The entire body of a long weapon, such as an arrow..

Definitions by Sense

1. (obsolete) The entire body of a long weapon, such as an arrow.
2. The long, narrow, central body of a spear, arrow, or javelin.
3. (by extension) Anything cast or thrown as a spear or javelin.
4. Any long thin object, such as the handle of a tool.
5. (literary) A beam or ray of light.
6. The main axis of a feather.
7. A vertical or inclined passage sunk into the earth as part of a mine.
8. A vertical passage housing a lift or elevator.

Example Sentences

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

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

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.

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

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.

Moya and her new friend Mamie have been shrieking appropriate quotations at one another, upstairs and down, for days past. Of course, I didn't see the exact point of the various shafts of wit until now, but this is evidently what was brewing.

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

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.

Word Forms

• shafts
• shafting
• shafted

Synonyms for shaft

Related Words

When Should You Use Shaft?

Use shaft when its meaning, tone and grammar fit the full sentence. A synonym is not always a direct replacement.

Practice This Word

Frequently Asked Questions