shuttle
- a device in a loom for passing or shooting the weft thread through the shed from one side of the web to the other, usually consisting of a boat-shaped piece of wood containing a bobbin on which the weft thread is wound.
- the sliding container that carries the lower thread in a sewing machine.
- a public conveyance, as a train, airplane, or bus, that travels back and forth at regular intervals over a particular route, especially a short route or one connecting two transportation systems.
- shuttlecock(def 1).
- (often initial capital letter) space shuttle.
- to cause (someone or something) to move to and fro or back and forth by or as if by a shuttle: They shuttled me all over the seventh floor.
- to move to and fro: constantly shuttling between city and suburb.
Origin of shuttle
Examples from the Web for shuttle
Contemporary Examples
The first shuttle flights with two crew members used ejection seats and full pressure suits.
Once a day, she says, a shuttle bus took them into town, dropping them not so subtly near the train station.
Italy's Latest Export Is Refugees, and the Rest of Europe Is Not HappyBarbie Latza Nadeau
August 26, 2014
He used the Lear—which seated only six and had no bar—mostly to shuttle his pals between Los Angeles, Palm Springs, and Las Vegas.
As we struggled to break 130 kph, he glanced at me and our black Peugeot shook like a shuttle on reentry.
Back and forth between Washington and New York on that shuttle all the time.
Historical Examples
The loom-girl in these parts is never too early at her harness and shuttle.
The Book of KhalidAmeen Rihani
Do you think you are going to make me run to and fro like a shuttle?
The Fortune of the RougonsEmile Zola
The shuttle will be made by the carpenter; the awl by the smith or skilled person.
CratylusPlato
We cut with a knife, we pierce with an awl, we weave with a shuttle, we name with a name.
CratylusPlato
And as a shuttle separates the warp from the woof, so a name distinguishes the natures of things.
CratylusPlato
shuttle
- a bobbin-like device used in weaving for passing the weft thread between the warp threads
- a small bobbin-like device used to hold the thread in a sewing machine or in tatting, knitting, etc
- a bus, train, aircraft, etc, that plies between two points, esp one that offers a frequent service over a short route
- short for space shuttle
- the movement between various countries of a diplomat in order to negotiate with rulers who refuse to meet each other
- (as modifier)shuttle diplomacy
- badminton short for shuttlecock
- to move or cause to move by or as if by a shuttle
Word Origin
Word Origin and History for shuttle
n.
Old English scytel "a dart, arrow," from West Germanic *skutilaz (cf. Old Norse skutill "harpoon"), from PIE *skeud- "to shoot, to chase, to throw, to project" (see shoot (v.)). The original sense in English is obsolete; the weaving instrument so called (mid-14c.) from being "shot" across the threads. Sense of "train that runs back and forth" is first recorded 1895, from image of the weaver's instrument's back-and-forth movement over the warp; extended to aircraft 1942, to spacecraft 1969. In some other languages, the weaving instrument takes its name from its resemblance to a boat (cf. Latin navicula, French navette, German weberschiff).
v.
1550s, "move rapidly to and fro," from shuttle (n.); sense of "transport via a shuttle service" is recorded from 1930. Related: Shuttled; shuttling.