Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use shaft in a sentence

40 example sentences · noun, verb

Shaft means the entire body of a long weapon, such as an arrow. Example: “Her hand slipped off the javelin's shaft towards the spearpoint and that's why her score was lowered.”

Examples of shaft by meaning

nounThe long, narrow, central body of a spear, arrow, or javelin.

  • Her hand slipped off the javelin's shaft towards the spearpoint and that's why her score was lowered.

nounAnything cast or thrown as a spear or javelin.

  • Of course, I didn't see the exact point of the various shafts of wit until now, but this is evidently what was brewing.1927, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], Max Carrados Mysteries

nounOne of the poles between which a draught animal is harnessed to a vehicle.

  • Between the shafts the bay mare tossed her head and fidgeted on the cobbles.1967, Barbara Sleigh, Jessamy, Sevenoaks, Kent: Bloomsbury, published 1993, →ISBN, page 57

nounA rotating machine element used to transmit power; a driveshaft.

  • The name comes from the Latin turbo, meaning vortex, and thus the defining property of a turbine is that a fluid or gas turns the blades of a rotor, which is attached to a shaft that can perform useful work.2013 July-August, Lee S. Langston, “The Adaptable Gas Turbine”, in American Scientist

nounThe long narrow body of a lacrosse stick.

  • Sarah, if you wear gloves your hands might not slip on your shaft and you can up your game, girl!

nounA beam or ray of light.

  • Isn't that shaft of light from that opening in the cave beautiful?

nounThe main axis of a feather.

  • I had no idea that they removed the feathers' shafts to make the pillows softer!

nounA vertical or inclined passage sunk into the earth as part of a mine.

  • Your grandfather used to work with a crane hauling ore out of the gold mine's shafts.

More sentences with shaft

  • The group of miners were stuck underground after a shaft caved in.From the entry miner
  • This bearing requires a sleeve so the shaft will fit snugly.From the entry sleeve
  • The shaft can be turned rotationally, but not translated.From the entry rotationally
  • My shockproof watch stood up to everything it reasonably could be expected to and kept ticking; but dropping it down an elevator shaft is asking too much.From the entry shockproof
  • When you replace a drive shaft on your boat, it is also a good idea to replace the cutlass bearing where the drive shaft exits the boat.From the entry cutlass bearing
  • Lower limbs: left proximal femur shaft segment; fragment each of unsided tibia and fibula shaft.2022, William Britnell, Alasdair Whittle, The First Stones, page 202. From the entry unsided
  • But the cameras were stymied; the shaft of muscle was just a fast moving blackety blur.2021, Sailor Sim, Outward Browned: The Book Girl. From the entry blackedy
  • The cross-staff is a very simple instrument, a calibrated shaft along which a bar slides.2015, David Wootton, The Invention of Science, Penguin, published 2016, page 188. From the entry cross-staff
  • The trochanter is a low, thick S-shaped ridge along the mediocaudal edge of the shaft.2015 November 13, “Hadrosauroid Dinosaurs from the Late Cretaceous of the Sultanate of Oman”, in PLOS ONE, →DOI. From the entry mediocaudal
  • The original article (which see) mentions that the primary shafts on the upperwings lacked any whitish coloration.2015, Bob Flood, Ashley Fisher, Martin Elliott, Pterodroma Petrels: North Atlantic Seabirds. From the entry upperwing
  • Access to the shafts is gained via a brick entrance rotunda below a glass dome.2014 December, Mary Mills, “Foot Tunnels beneath the River Thames”, in Nick Catford, editor, Subterranea, number 37, Ascot, Berkshire…. From the entry rotunda
  • The men scrambled down the three ropes that had been grappled up the shaft.2014, Robert E. Waters, The Wayward Eight: A Contract to Die For, Winged Hussar Publishing, →ISBN. From the entry grapple
  • Her body swims before me, spangled and transpierced by shafts of light caught in my tears.2010, John Howard Griffin, Nuni. From the entry transpierce
  • He seized a clawful of rubble and hurled it up the shaft.2010 [1973], Cormac McCarthy, Child of God, →ISBN, page 180. From the entry clawful
  • Pogies are sheaths of nylon or neoprene and fleece that fit over the paddle shaft.2008, John Lull, Sea Kayaking Safety & Rescue, unnumbered page. From the entry pogie
  • Getting a shaft through the T-slit of the barbut helm was . . .2006, S. M. Stirling, The Protector's War, Penguin, →ISBN, page 106. From the entry barbut
  • Wielding his flashlight like a lightsaber, Kyle sent golden shafts slicing through the swirling vapors.2004, Rob N. Hood, Beyond the Wind, Binghamton, N.Y.: Southern Tier Editions/Harrington Park Press, →ISBN, page 1. From the entry lightsaber
  • It might seem that a Whisker Biscuit's nylon bristles, which surround the shaft, would affect arrow flight.2004 August, Scott Bestul, “The No-Nonsense Bow”, in Field & Stream, unnumbered page. From the entry whisker biscuit
  • The whole, long, thick, meaty shaft of it quivered as if eager to dispel my mouth.2002, Jean Marie Stine, Trans-Sexual - Page 68. From the entry meaty
  • Three factors could ameliorate the effect of a bound input shaft and bearing.2001 March 27, National Transportation Safety Board, “1.16.3 Detail Examination and Tests of Standby Rudder Actuator Input Shaft and…. From the entry null
  • Very open crioconic whorls, which gradually pass into a long straight shaft.1997, Nico M. M. Janssen, Mikhail Vladimirovich Kakabadze, Ph. J. Hoedemaeker, Mediterranean Neocomian belemnites. From the entry crioconic
  • He brillo pads his shaft if he hasn't had a date in a month.1997 July 10, Carl M. Pearson, “Billiard Terms that sound dirty but aren't...”, in rec.sport.billiard (Usenet). From the entry brillo-pad
  • “For example, the impact on identified view shafts is not a factor.”1995 December 7, “Midland tower decision due”, in The Dominion. From the entry view shaft
  • The general configuration of the palaeoburrows comprises vertical shafts showing branching.1995, Dansk geologisk forening, Bulletin of the Geological Society of Denmark, page 45. From the entry palaeoburrow
  • The strength and number of blows depends on how far out of true the shafts are.1994, Bruce Palmer, How to Restore Your Harley-Davidson. From the entry true
  • I'm sick of my ‘Mighty Intruder’ vibrator with the flexible shaft and the textured head.1988, Wendy Goldman, Judy Toll, Casual Sex?, spoken by Stacy (Lea Thompson). From the entry vibrator
  • I cut bloodwood saplings and shaped a new pair of shafts with an adze.1988, Tom Cole, Hell West and Crooked, Angus & Robertson, published 1995, page 255. From the entry bloodwood
  • Shaft 24a carried the back check 24 for checking the downstrike of its related hammer 22.1988, WS Finholm, Piano key action: US Patent 4,774,868. From the entry downstrike
  • Stenoteles and euryteles are both rhopaloids, nematocysts characterized by an anisodiametrically dilated shaft.1984, Zoologische Mededeelingen, page 41. From the entry rhopaloid
  • Leaving the coach sitting there horseless of shaft and decidedly listful at the front end.1982, Bill Reed, Ihe: A Novel, page 152. From the entry listful
  • Sometimes the task of splining a shaft comes up during a repair.1965 August, Popular Science, volume 187, number 2, page 133. From the entry spline
  • A buckboard with a patient flop-eared bay between shafts stood in front of ROOMS & EATS.1963, Jack Schaefer, Monte Walsh, page 152. From the entry flop-eared

Meaning of shaft

  1. noun The entire body of a long weapon, such as an arrow.
  2. noun The long, narrow, central body of a spear, arrow, or javelin.
  3. noun Anything cast or thrown as a spear or javelin.

Full definition of shaft

Questions about shaft in a sentence

How do you use shaft in a sentence?
Shaft is used as a noun and verb. For example: “Her hand slipped off the javelin's shaft towards the spearpoint and that's why her score was lowered.”
What is a short sentence with shaft?
“The shaft can be turned rotationally, but not translated.”
What does shaft mean?
Shaft means the entire body of a long weapon, such as an arrow.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: shaft (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use shaft in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/shaft. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.