shaft
part of speech
noun (a shaft, shafts)
meaning for a pupil
1) A shaft is a long, narrow hole that goes straight down or up, such as a mine shaft or a lift shaft. tree →
2) A shaft is the long, thin straight part of a tool, arrow, spear or golf club. tree →
3) A shaft of light is a narrow beam of light shining through a gap. tree →
4) In machines, a shaft is a rod that turns and passes on movement, like the shaft in a car. tree →
5) A shaft can also be one of the two long poles on a cart, between which a horse is harnessed. tree →
sense in the lessons
In stories, people fall down old mine shafts or a shaft of sunlight shines into a dark room. In science and technology lessons, a turning shaft carries power from a motor to wheels. Safety: never go near old mine shafts or open lift shafts.
examples
- The miners went down the shaft in a metal cage. tree →
- A shaft of sunlight came through the gap in the curtains. tree →
- The arrow had a wooden shaft and a sharp tip. tree →
- The lift shaft runs from the basement to the top floor. tree →
- Keep away from old mine shafts; they can be very deep. tree →
- The motor turns a shaft that spins the wheels. tree →
- The handle of the hammer is called its shaft. tree →
- The golf club's shaft bent when he hit the tree. tree →
- So of course the townspeople, whenever they wanted a horse shod or a shaft mended, went to the mayor. tree →
note
Countable noun: «a shaft, shafts». Shaft can mean a hole (empty) or a rod (solid), so read the sentence to know which. «A shaft of light» is a beam, not a hole. Lift (UK) and elevator (US) shafts are the same thing.
In the corpora
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «shaft» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.