Noun

(en noun)

(lb) The entire body of a long weapon, such as an arrow.

* , (Geoffrey Chaucer):

His sleep, his meat, his drink, is him bereft, /

* , (Roger Ascham):

A shaft hath three principal parts, the stele, the feathers, and the head.

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

*

Orion hit a rabbit once; but though sore wounded it got to the bury, and, struggling in, the arrow caught the side of the hole and was drawn out.. Ikey the blacksmith had forged us a spearhead after a sketch from a picture of a Greek warrior; and a rake-handle served as a shaft .

(lb) Anything cast or thrown as a spear or javelin.

* , (John Milton):

And the thunder, / Winged with red lightning and impetuous rage, / Perhaps

* , (Vicesimus Knox):

Some kinds of literary pursuitshave been attacked with all the shafts of ridicule.

Any long thin object, such as the handle of a tool, one of the poles between which an animal is harnessed to a vehicle, the driveshaft of a motorized vehicle with rear-wheel drive, an axle, etc.

* {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=July-August, author= Lee S. Langston, magazine=(American Scientist)

, title= The Adaptable Gas Turbine , passage=Turbines have been around for a long time—windmills and water wheels are early examples. 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.}}

A beam or ray of light.

* 1912 , (Willa Cather), :

They were a fine company of old women, and a Dutch painter would have loved to find them there together, where the sun made bright patches on the floor and sent long, quivering shafts of gold through the dusky shade up among the rafters.

The main axis of a feather.

(lb) The long narrow body of a lacrosse stick.

A long, narrow passage sunk into the earth, either natural or for artificial.

A vertical passage housing a lift or elevator; a liftshaft.

A ventilation or heating conduit; an air duct.

(lb) Any column or pillar, particularly the body of a column between its capital and pediment.

* , (Ralph Waldo Emerson):

Bid time and nature gently spare /

The main cylindrical part of the penis.

The chamber of a blast furnace.

Noun

To do with a plant with simple stems, like bamboo or sugar cane.

# (uncountable) The slender, flexible main stem of a plant such as bamboo, including many species in the grass family Gramineae.

# (uncountable) The plant itself, including many species in the grass family Gramineae; a reed.

# (uncountable) Sugar cane.

#* {{quote-book, year=1907, author=

, chapter=7, title= The Dust of Conflict , passage=Still, a dozen men with rifles, and cartridges to match, stayed behind when they filed through a white aldea lying silent amid the cane , and the Sin Verguenza swung into slightly quicker stride.}}

# (US, Southern) Maize or, rarely, sorghum, when such plants are processed to make molasses (treacle) or sugar.

The stem of such a plant adapted for use as a tool.

# (countable) A short rod or stick, traditionally of wood or bamboo, used for corporal punishment.

# (uncountable) Corporal punishment by beating with a cane.

# A lance or dart made of cane.

#* (John Dryden) (1631-1700)

Judgelike thou sitt'st, to praise or to arraign / The flying skirmish of the darted cane .

A rod-shaped tool or device, somewhat like a cane.

# (countable) A strong short staff used for support or decoration during walking; a walking stick.

#* {{quote-book, year=1905, author=

, title= , chapter=2 citation , passage=The cane was undoubtedly of foreign make, for it had a solid silver ferrule at one end, which was not English hall–marked.}}

#* , chapter=10

, title= Mr. Pratt's Patients , passage=Men that I knew around Wapatomac didn't wear high, shiny plug hats, nor yeller spring overcoats, nor carry canes with ivory heads as big as a catboat's anchor, as you might say.}}

# (countable, glassblowing) A length of colored and/or patterned glass rod, used in the specific glassblowing technique called caneworking.

# (countable) A long rod often collapsible and commonly white (for visibility to other persons), used by vision impaired persons for guidance in determining their course and for probing for obstacles in their path.

(uncountable) Split rattan, as used in wickerwork, basketry and the like.

* {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham)

, chapter=1, title= The China Governess , passage=The half-dozen pieces […] were painted white and carved with festoons of flowers, birds and cupids. […]  The bed was the most extravagant piece.  Its graceful cane halftester rose high towards the cornice and was so festooned in carved white wood that the effect was positively insecure, as if the great couch were trimmed with icing sugar.}}

A local European measure of length; the canna.