shaft

American  

[shaft, shahft] / ʃæft, ʃɑft /

noun

shafts plural

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.

16. Slang: Vulgar. the penis.

17. Slang: harsh, unfair, or treacherous treatment.

    I feel like he’s giving me the shaft.

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verb (used with object)

shafts, present (3rd person singular) shafted, past participle, past shafting present participle

1. to push or propel with a pole.

   to shaft a boat through a tunnel.

2. Slang. to treat in a harsh, unfair, or treacherous manner.

shaft British  

/ 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

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. slang to be tricked or cheated

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verb

1. slang to have sexual intercourse with (a woman)

2. slang to trick or cheat

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• subshaft
  noun
• shaftless
  adjective
• shaftlike
  adjective
• unshafted
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• shafts
  plural

Participles

• shafting
  present
• shafted
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• shaft
  simple
• shafts
  simple
• have shafted
  perfect
• has shafted
  perfect
• am shafting
  progressive
• are shafting
  progressive
• is shafting
  progressive
• have been shafting
  perfect progressive
• has been shafting
  perfect progressive

Past

• shafted
  simple
• had shafted
  perfect
• was shafting
  progressive
• were shafting
  progressive
• had been shafting
  perfect progressive

Future

• will shaft
  simple
• will have shafted
  perfect
• will be shafting
  progressive
• will have been shafting
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of shaft

First recorded before 1000; Middle English; Old English sceaft; cognate with German Schaft; compare Latin scāpus “shaft,” Greek skêptron scepter

Explanation

The noun shaft refers to something that resembles a long, thin pole, such as the long part of an arrow between the tip and the feathers. The word shaft can describe all kinds of things that are long and thin, such a shaft of light or a spear or the handle of a golf club or the midsection of a long bone. A shaft can also be a long narrow tunnel, generally one that runs straight up and down, such as a mine shaft or an elevator shaft. You might think these items don’t have much in common, but think about their shape: they’re all long, straight, and thin.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

shaft shafts shafted shafting

Their theory was that the descending column of water acted somewhat like a syringe, pushing air through the shaft as it fell.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 6, 2026

During a test of the shaft deluge system, airflow sensors on the 4850 Level recorded an unexpected increase in air movement.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 6, 2026

A headframe — that’s the tower built directly over an underground mine shaft — is part of Tonopah’s logo.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 14, 2026

Utility company Con Edison said a passing truck likely dislodged the manhole’s cover about 12 minutes before Gocaj parked her car and fell into the open shaft.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 20, 2026

I stood a moment in the doorway, blinded by the shaft of light that struck like a knife blade into the darkness.

From "How the García Girls Lost Their Accents" by Julia Alvarez

And it was the site of the UK's most northerly deep coal mine, before the last shafts closed in the 1970s.

From BBC ● May 15, 2026

While rare earths will be the primary focus, exploration will also assess the potential for gold mining — the area is dotted with old, small-scale adits and shafts.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 30, 2026

The new wing was designed by Shohei Shigematsu and Rem Koolhaas with Cooper Robertson, and has the geometric look of angular mesh enveloping an open stair case, elevator shafts and display spaces.

From Barron's ● Mar. 18, 2026

These tools combined stone elements with handles or shafts.

From Science Daily ● Jan. 31, 2026

A little apart from them, an old woman was heading arrows: slotting needle-fine flakes of flint into the shafts, then gluing them in place with a paste of pine.blood and beeswax.

From "Wolf Brother" by Michelle Paver

In her view, she was shafted into the “what’s mine is yours” agreement.

From Salon ● Apr. 23, 2026

The rare find included a shafted Roman "pilum" spear.

From Reuters ● Sep. 6, 2023

And still more get shafted by bureaucratic blunders: One survivor, for instance, filed a claim on time but was falsely told by the VA that she was too young to qualify.

From Slate ● Jan. 24, 2023

Many of their residents feel shafted anew by the trade deal, their resentment toward Johnson’s government in far-off London on the rise.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 27, 2021

Without even trying, she’d shafted her best friend.

From "Uglies" by Scott Westerfeld

For some, it’s the beautiful place where having it all means shafting someone else, as in Roman Polanski’s “Chinatown,” about Los Angeles’ theft of water from the Owens Valley.

From Salon ● Nov. 7, 2019

Lindsay was instrumental, way back in the dark ages of the fifties, in forcing the N.H.L. to redress the historic shafting of their chattels by an ownership combine stuck in nineteenth-century ideas of employee relations.

From The New Yorker ● Apr. 19, 2015

Not too long ago, positive change inevitably occurred following an embarrassing news report of a company behaving badly, e.g., shafting its employees out of their justly earned wages.

From Forbes ● Feb. 16, 2015

Among four citations alleging repeat safety violations were charges of unguarded elevated platforms and horizontal shafting.

From Washington Times ● Jun. 16, 2014

Instead she saw...the sky—moonlight shafting through smoke, and even the glimmer of stars.

From "Strange the Dreamer" by Laini Taylor

Related Words

• beam
• chimney
• cylinder
• duct
• rod
• tunnel