shuttlecock
UK/ˈʃʌtl̩ˌkɒk//ˈʃʌtl̩ˌkɑk/
shuttlecock noun: a lightweight object that is conical in shape with a cork or rubber-covered nose, used in badminton the way a ball is used in other racquet games.
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Noun
shuttlecock (countable and uncountable, plural shuttlecocks)
- A lightweight object that is conical in shape with a cork or rubber-covered nose, used in badminton the way a ball is used in other racquet games.
- Seven or eight of them, standing in a circle, were engaged in a game of shittlecock. They had in their hands no battledores. They did not employ the hand or arm, any way, in striking it. But, after taking a short race, and springing from the floor, they met the descending shittlecock with the sole...1797, George Staunton, “Cochin-china”, in An Authentic Account of an Embassy from the King of Great Britain to the Emperor of China; […] In Two Volumes, […], volume I, London: […] G[eorge] Nicol...
- In a severe gale like this, while the ship is but a tossed shuttlecock to the blast, it is by no means uncommon to see the needles in the compasses, at intervals, go round and round.1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “The Musket”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 566
- Synonyms:
- birdie
- The game of badminton.
- Fla[via]. Come, Sir Pergamus, till your horse come, you and I'll go play at shuttle-cock. / Per[gamus]. A match i'faith. I love that sport a' life. Yet my mother charged me not to use it for fear of putting my arm out of joint.c. 1604–1626, doubtfully attributed to Francis Beaumont, John Fletcher, “The Faithful Friends”, in Henry [William] Weber, editor, The Works of Beaumont and Fletcher, in Fourteen Volumes: […], volume...
- Two people stand at opposite ends of the room, as in playing shuttlecock […]1830, Mrs. Marcet (Jane Haldimand), Bertha's visit to her uncle in England (volume 3, page 105)
Verb
shuttlecock (third-person singular simple present shuttlecocks, present participle shuttlecocking, simple past and past participle shuttlecocked)
- To move rapidly back and forth.
- To send or toss back and forth; to bandy.
- to shuttlecock words
- if the phrase is to be shuttlecocked between us!1857–1859, W[illiam] M[akepeace] Thackeray, The Virginians. A Tale of the Last Century, volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury & Evans, […], published 1858–1859, →OCLC
shuttlecock meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Punjabi and Arabic
shuttlecock in Hindi
- a lightweight object that is conical in shape with a cork or rubber-covered nose, used in badminton the way a ball is used in other racquet games
- चिड़िया ciṛiyā, शटलकॉक śaṭalkŏk
shuttlecock in Tamil
- இறகுப்பந்து, நெட்டிப்பந்து
shuttlecock in Punjabi
- shuttlecock
- ਚਿੜੀ ciṛī
shuttlecock in Arabic
- a lightweight object that is conical in shape with a cork or rubber-covered nose, used in badminton the way a ball is used in other racquet games
- رِيشَة rīša
More languagesFewer languages
- shuttlecock in Malay
- bulu tangkis
- shuttlecock in Indonesian
- kok
- shuttlecock in Persian
- توپ بدمینتون
- shuttlecock in Thai
- ลูกขนไก่ lûuk-kǒn-gài
- shuttlecock in Vietnamese
- quả cầu lông
Examples of shuttlecock in a sentence
- The practice of the game in this country is to keep the shuttlecock in the air by striking it from one person to another.1859, Ebenezer Landells, The Boy’s Own Toy-maker, page 122:
- Crudely as they had calculated they were at first justified by the event; she was the little feathered shuttlecock they fiercely kept flying between them.1897 October 16, Henry James, chapter II, in What Maisie Knew, Chicago, Ill.; New York, N.Y.: Herbert S. Stone & Co., →OCLC, page 16:
Synonyms of shuttlecock
Forms of shuttlecock
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | shuttlecocks |
| alternative form | shittlecock |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | shuttlecocks |
| present participle | shuttlecocking |
| past participle | shuttlecocked |
| past | shuttlecocked |
Origin of shuttlecock
From shuttle (from the back-and-forth sense of the word originating with loom weaving) + cock (from resemblance to a male bird's plume of tail feathers).
Phrases with shuttlecock
Questions about shuttlecock
- What does shuttlecock mean?
- Shuttlecock means a lightweight object that is conical in shape with a cork or rubber-covered nose, used in badminton the way a ball is used in other racquet games.
- What is shuttlecock in Hindi?
- Shuttlecock in Hindi is चिड़िया (ciṛiyā), शटलकॉक (śaṭalkŏk). See Shuttlecock meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use shuttlecock in a sentence?
- The practice of the game in this country is to keep the shuttlecock in the air by striking it from one person to another.
- What part of speech is shuttlecock?
- Shuttlecock can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce shuttlecock?
- Shuttlecock is pronounced /ˈʃʌtl̩ˌkɒk/ (UK).
- What is the plural of shuttlecock?
- The plural of shuttlecock is shuttlecocks.
Words near shuttlecock in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: shuttlecock (page history and authors); shuttlecock (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ਚਿੜੀ (Punjabi) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-shuttlecock.ogg, en-au-shuttlecock.ogg.
Cite this entry: “shuttlecock.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/shuttlecock. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.