shunt
Americanverb (used with object)
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shunts,
present (3rd person singular)
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shunted,
past participle, past
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shunting
present participle
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to shove or turn (someone or something) aside or out of the way.
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to sidetrack; get rid of.
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Electricity.
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to divert (a part of a current) by connecting a circuit element in parallel with another.
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to place or furnish with a shunt.
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Railroads. to shift (rolling stock) from one track to another; switch.
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Surgery.
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to divert blood or other fluid by means of a shunt.
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the tube itself.
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to move or turn aside or out of the way.
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(of a locomotive with rolling stock) to move from track to track or from point to point, as in a railroad yard; switch.
noun
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shunts
plural
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the act of shunting; shift.
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Also called bypass. Electricity. a conducting element bridged across a circuit or a portion of a circuit, establishing a current path auxiliary to the main circuit, as a resistor placed across the terminals of an ammeter for increasing the range of the device.
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a railroad switch.
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Surgery. a channel through which blood or other bodily fluid is diverted from its normal path by surgical reconstruction or by a synthetic tube.
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Anatomy. an anastomosis.
adjective
verb
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to turn or cause to turn to one side; move or be moved aside
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railways to transfer (rolling stock) from track to track
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electronics to divert or be diverted through a shunt
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(tr) to evade by putting off onto someone else
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slang (tr) motor racing to crash (a car)
noun
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the act or an instance of shunting
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a railway point
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electronics a low-resistance conductor connected in parallel across a device, circuit, or part of a circuit to provide an alternative path for a known fraction of the current
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med a channel that bypasses the normal circulation of the blood: a congenital abnormality or surgically induced
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informal a collision which occurs when a vehicle runs into the back of the vehicle in front
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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shuntsimple
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shuntssimple
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have shuntedperfect
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has shuntedperfect
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am shuntingprogressive
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are shuntingprogressive
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is shuntingprogressive
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have been shuntingperfect progressive
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has been shuntingperfect progressive
Past
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shuntedsimple
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had shuntedperfect
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was shuntingprogressive
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were shuntingprogressive
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had been shuntingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of shunt
1175–1225; (v.) Middle English schunten, shonten to shy (said of horses); (noun) Middle English, derivative of the v.; akin to shun
Explanation
A shunt is a small tube that goes inside the body to drain fluid. It also means to divert in a general way, like if you shunt the thought of tubes in your body, you think about rainbows and kittens instead. Although shunt usually refers to a tube that drains blood or other fluid out of a part of the body, shunt also means to bypass. If a train is shunted, it’s diverted from the main track onto a side track. The word may have come from shun, as in “turn away,” which is what a shunt essentially does. It turns something away from where it was headed.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
"When this happens, queens have their own defense. Maternal offloading allows them to shunt the toxic burden to their eggs."
From Science Daily ● Aug. 22, 2026
Funders shunt capital from around the world into U.S. lawsuits, taking a cut of any recovery.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 5, 2026
Surgical treatment usually involves placement of a shunt.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 23, 2025
The bouncer is intimidating, the attendants shunt customers to digital kiosks, and there are no attractive, informative displays for browsing.
From Slate ● Apr. 19, 2025
Writers need to look in both directions, and shunt phrases around to keep them from dangerous liaisons with an inappropriate next-door neighbor.
From "The Sense of Style" by Steven Pinker
Rather than ushering the victim to the next life, this shunts him further into obscurity and ignominy.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 2, 2025
"Most of them are shunts", she said, adding: "But there have been several nasty accidents also."
From BBC ● Jan. 6, 2025
This shunts air molecules to the Jacobson’s organ.
From National Geographic ● Jan. 2, 2024
With narrative elegance, formal brio and exquisite feeling, Cooper ushers Felicia into the spotlight and sometimes shunts the attention-hogging Lenny off into the wings.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 21, 2023
As soon as we’re at the top, she shunts us to the side and swings around to face me.
From "The Sun Is Also a Star" by Nicola Yoon
Advocates for people living outside, in campers and other makeshift quarters have long expressed the worry that those vulnerable people get shunted aside when major events come to town.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 4, 2026
He’s even patrolling center field again after being shunted off to right in a failed attempt to keep him intact.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 17, 2026
While the ban has resolved the problem in the restricted areas, concerns have been raised by some that it has simply shunted the issue elsewhere.
From BBC ● Mar. 27, 2026
James, who scored 16 points in Thursday's loss, appeared to injure his left elbow in the fourth quarter, after he was shunted off the court and landed on the legs of a cameraman.
From Barron's ● Mar. 6, 2026
We were shunted to a side track while another train of cattle cars passed us, going in the opposite direction.
From "Prisoner B-3087" by Alan Gratz
Bolivian President Rodrigo Paz was swept to power last year, shunting aside nearly a generation of socialist rule in this landlocked country and winning friends in the Trump administration for his pro-market views.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 21, 2026
In the meantime, she said, shunting well-liked leaders will sink morale.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 29, 2025
That process would not only exert enormous mechanical stresses on the magnets, it would also require safely shunting tens of gigawatts of power in and out of them with exquisite efficiency, Gourlay says.
From Science Magazine ● Mar. 27, 2024
Excursion operators Belmond said a "shunting incident" occurred when Flying Scotsman was being coupled with the company's Royal Scotsman carriages.
From BBC ● Sep. 30, 2023
“What are they?” asked Bronwyn, undoing the cloth to reveal a hunk of brownish meat with little tubes shunting out of it.
From "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children" by Ransom Riggs
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
