shaft
The long, narrow, central body of a spear, arrow or javelin.
Example
“Her hand slipped off the javelin's shaft towards the spearpoint and that's why her score was lowered.”
Other meanings
Anything cast or thrown as a spear or javelin.
Any long thin object, such as the handle of a tool.
Related words
- bareshaft
- layshaft
- mainshaft
- nonshaft
- prickshaft
- shafthouse
- shaftie
- shaftsman
- shaftway
- shafty
- subshaft
- turboshaft
Word history
From Old English "sċeaft".
Where this comes from
This definition is adapted from “shaft” on Wiktionary, by its contributors, published under CC BY-SA 4.0. This page is published under the same licence.