shaft
(Informal)
[noun]
Synonyms:
- handle, pole, rod, shank, stem
- ray, beam, gleam

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Related Idioms: a royal screwing, the dirty end of the stick, the royal shaft
Related Words: cut, jab, thrust, potshot, short end

[TahlilGaran] English Synonym Dictionary ▲

I. shaft¹ /ʃɑːft $ ʃæft/ noun [countable]
[Language: Old English; Origin: sceaft]

1. PASSAGE a passage which goes down through a building or down into the ground, so that someone or something can get in or out
mine/elevator/ventilation etc shaft
a 300-foot elevator shaft

2. HANDLE a long handle on a tool, spear etc

3. OF LIGHT a narrow beam of light
shaft of light/sunlight

4. ENGINE PART a long thin piece of metal in an engine or machine, that turns and passes on power or movement to another part of the machine:
a drive shaft

5. FOR A HORSE [usually plural] one of a pair of poles between which a horse is tied to pull a vehicle

6. ARROW literary an arrow

7. get the shaft informal to be treated very unfairly

[TahlilGaran] Dictionary of Contemporary English ▲

II. shaft² verb [transitive] informal not polite
to treat someone very unfairly, especially by dishonestly getting money from them:
I can’t believe you paid that much. You got shafted.

[TahlilGaran] Dictionary of Contemporary English ▲

shaft
noun
ADJ. deep | vertical | lift, mine (also mineshaft) A fire broke out in the main lift shaft.
air, ventilation
VERB + SHAFT bore, drill, sink
PREP. down a/the ~ The body had been thrown down a disused mineshaft.
in/into a/the ~, through a/the ~ The workers go down to the tunnels through a vertical shaft sunk from the top of the cliff.
PHRASES the bottom/top of a shaft They lowered him down to the bottom of the deep shaft.

[TahlilGaran] Collocations Dictionary ▲