Wiktionary

shuttle

English

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A weaving shuttle.

Etymology

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From a merger of two words:

The name for a loom weaving instrument, recorded from 1338, is from a sense of being "shot" across the threads. The back-and-forth imagery inspired the extension to "passenger trains" in 1895, aircraft in 1942, and spacecraft in 1969, as well as older terms such as shuttlecock.

Pronunciation

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  • (US) IPA(key): /ˈʃʌtəl/
  • Audio (US):(file)
  • Rhymes: -ʌtəl

Noun

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shuttle (plural shuttles)

  1. (weaving) A tool used to carry the woof back and forth between the warp threads on a loom.
    • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Job 7:6:
      My dayes are ſwifter then a weauers ſhuttle, and are ſpent without hope.
    • 1638, George Sandys, A Paraphrase upon Job:
      Like shuttles through the loom, so swiftly glide
      My feather'd hours, and all my hopes deride!.
    • 2013 November 11, Claus-Dieter Brauns, “Food and Clothing”, in Mru: Hill People on the Border of Bangladesh‎[1], Basel: Birkhäuser, page 131:
      By placing the sword edgewise, the weaver keeps the countershed open, in order to shoot through the shuttle.
  2. The sliding thread holder in a sewing machine, which carries the lower thread through a loop of the upper thread, to make a lock stitch.
  3. A transport service (such as a bus or train) that goes back and forth between two or more places.
    The shuttle bus runs to the airport on a half-hourly basis from the central station.
    • 2012, Andrew Martin, Underground Overground: A passenger's history of the Tube, Profile Books, →ISBN, pages 76, 77:
      And until December 2010 the northern stretch of the 'Extension' featured a charming side-show: the Chesham Shuttle. [...] But the people of Chesham moaned about the shuttle: the waiting room at Chalfont & Latimer was too hot, or too cold; there were leaves on the line. [...] On 12 Dec 2010 the shuttle ceased operations and Metropolitan trains began to terminate at both Amersham and Chesham.
  4. Such a transport vehicle; a shuttle bus; a space shuttle.
    • 2004, Dawn of the Dead, 1:14:20:
      You're saying we take the parking shuttles, reinforce them with aluminum siding and then head to the gun store where our friend Andy plays some cowboy-movie, jump-on-the-wagon bullshit.
  5. Any other item that moves repeatedly back and forth between two positions, possibly transporting something else with it between those points (such as, in chemistry, a molecular shuttle).
  6. A shuttlecock.
  7. A shutter, as for a channel for molten metal.

Usage notes

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In its original sense, a shuttle goes back and forth between two places. The term is also used in a broader sense for short-haul transport that may be one-way or have multiple stops (including shared ride or loop), particularly for airport buses; compare loose usage of limousine. It is also often used to describe a rail replacement bus service, or a rail service that does not run the full length of the normal route forcing passengers to transfer, regardless of the number of stops.

Derived terms

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Descendants

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  • → Dutch: shuttle
  • → Italian: shuttle
  • → Japanese: シャトル (shatoru)
  • → Korean: 셔틀 (syeoteul)

Translations

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Verb

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shuttle (third-person singular simple present shuttles, present participle shuttling, simple past and past participle shuttled)

  1. (intransitive, transitive) To go or send back and forth between two places.
    • 1982 April 24, Larry Goldsmith, “Freedom of Information: A Heterosexual Privilege?”, in Gay Community News, page 6:
      On several occasions during the next several months my attempts to see the logs were met alternately with this denial of their existence or a denial of my right to see them. After being shuttled from station to headquarters and headquarters to station, I finally consulted with GCNs attorney, John Ward.
  2. (transitive) To transport by shuttle or by means of a shuttle service.
    Synonym: chauffeur
    Guests can be shuttled to a from the hotel for no extra cost.

Translations

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Anagrams

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Dutch

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Etymology

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Borrowed from English shuttle.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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shuttle m (plural shuttles, diminutive shuttletje n)

  1. a space shuttle
    Synonyms: ruimteveer, ruimtependel
  2. a shuttlecock, shuttle
    Synonyms: pluimbal, vederbal
  3. a shuttle bus
    Synonym: pendelbus

Italian

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Etymology

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From English shuttle.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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shuttle m (invariable)

  1. space shuttle

References

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  1. ^ shuttle in Luciano Canepari, Dizionario di Pronuncia Italiana (DiPI)
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