shunting

Verb

shunt (third-person singular simple present shunts, present participle shunting, simple past and past participle shunted)

1. (transitive) To cause to move (suddenly), as by pushing or shoving; to give a (sudden) start to.
   • For we are all shunting—shunting—shunting / We're all shunting in this queer world of ours. / Nations are shunted like to our railway carriages: / As Napoleon shunted la belle France into war; / Princes are shunted into royal marriages; / Kings and Queens are shunted just like a railway car.[1877?], Jacques Geal, “We’re All Shunting”, in John Diprose, compiler, The Railway Song Book, London: Diprose & Bateman, […], →OCLC, page 13, column 1

   Synonyms:

   shove

2. (transitive) To divert to a less important place, position, or state.
   • Here in England it is, thank God! the custom for us to shunt ourselves off the grand trunk railroad of business, in tearing up and down which our lives are mainly passed, into some quiet siding once every year. […] [W]hen July is running into August, and everything is breaking up, you feel that...1862 October, “Q.”, “On Being Shunted”, in London Society. An Illustrated Magazine of Light and Amusing Literature for the Hours of Relaxation, volume II, number IX, London: Office, 49 Fleet Street...
3. (transitive) To provide with a shunt.
   • to shunt a galvanometer
4. (transitive) To move data in memory to a physical disk.
   • A momentary power spike had caused a blip, forcing the backup system to shunt Carella's current work into a safety file. It was standard operating procedure, a decision made by the online computer itself.2010, Don Pendleton, Mike Linaker, “Prologue”, in System Corruption (Don Pendleton’s The Executioner), Toronto, Ont.: Gold Eagle, →ISBN
5. (transitive) To divert electric current by providing an alternative path.
   • The method of running an electric motor herein set out, which consists in starting the motor with the two halves of its armature in series with a resistance in a two-pole field, then gradually cutting out the resistance, then including the resistance and shunting one-half the motor, then opening...1895 April 2, Merle J. Wightman, Regulation of Continuous-current Motors, US Patent 542,667, page 2, column 2
6. (transitive) To move a train from one track to another, or to move carriages, etc. from one train to another.
   • Porter, run over while shunting a luggage train, in consequence of his getting entangled in shunting-rope.1846, “Report”, in Report of the Officers of the Railway Department to the Lords of the Committee of the Privy Council for Trade: With Appendices I. & II. For the Years 1844–45. […] (House of Commons...

See all 17 meanings of shunt