shunt

American  

[shuhnt] / ʃʌnt /

verb (used with object)

1. to shove or turn (someone or something) aside or out of the way.

2. to sidetrack; get rid of.

3. Electricity.

   1. to divert (a part of a current) by connecting a circuit element in parallel with another.

   2. to place or furnish with a shunt.

4. Railroads. to shift (rolling stock) from one track to another; switch.

5. Surgery.

   1. to divert blood or other fluid by means of a shunt.

   2. the tube itself.

6. to move or turn aside or out of the way.

7. (of a locomotive with rolling stock) to move from track to track or from point to point, as in a railroad yard; switch.

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noun

1. the act of shunting; shift.

2. 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.

3. a railroad switch.

4. Surgery. a channel through which blood or other bodily fluid is diverted from its normal path by surgical reconstruction or by a synthetic tube.

5. Anatomy. an anastomosis.

adjective

1. Electricity. being, having, or operating by means of a shunt.

   a shunt circuit; a shunt generator.

shunt British  

/ ʃʌnt /

verb

1. to turn or cause to turn to one side; move or be moved aside

2. railways to transfer (rolling stock) from track to track

3. electronics to divert or be diverted through a shunt

4. (tr) to evade by putting off onto someone else

5. slang (tr) motor racing to crash (a car)

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noun

1. the act or an instance of shunting

2. a railway point

3. 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

4. med a channel that bypasses the normal circulation of the blood: a congenital abnormality or surgically induced

5. informal a collision which occurs when a vehicle runs into the back of the vehicle in front

Other Word Forms

• shunter noun
• unshunted adjective

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

Example Sentences

Thankfully, he walked away from a huge shunt and will have time to recover fully before we go racing again in early May.

From BBC

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

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

At the final selection, I, along with all the other able-bodied souls, was shunted to one side, headed for the newly built Plaszow forced-labor camp.

From Literature

Born 24 weeks premature, she has cerebral palsy, a partial visual impairment and a shunt.

From BBC

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