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Shaft vs Spindle - What's the difference?

shaft | spindle |

As nouns the difference between shaft and spindle

is that shaft is the entire body of a long weapon, such as an arrow while spindle is a rod used for spinning and then winding natural fibres (especially wool), usually consisting of a shaft and a circular whorl positioned at either the upper or lower end of the shaft when suspended vertically from the forming thread.

As verbs the difference between shaft and spindle

is that shaft is to fuck over; to cause harm to, especially through deceit or treachery while spindle is to make into a long tapered shape.

shaft

English

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.

    • Usage notes

    In Early Modern English, the shaft referred to the entire body of a long weapon, such that an arrow's "shaft" was composed of its "tip", "stale" or "steal", and "fletching". empenne as "I [[feather, fether a shafte, I put fethers upon a steale". Over time, the word came to be used in place of the former "stale" and lost its original meaning.

    Synonyms

    * stale, stail, steal, stele, steel (arrows, spears ) * mineshaft (vertical underground passage )

    Derived terms

    (der top) * to give someone the shaft * to get the shaft (der bottom)

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (slang) To fuck over; to cause harm to, especially through deceit or treachery.
    • Your boss really shafted you by stealing your idea like that.
  • to equip with a shaft.
  • (slang) To fuck; to have sexual intercourse with.
    • Turns out my roommate was shafting my girlfriend.

    Anagrams

    * English transitive verbs

    spindle

    English

    Alternative forms

    * (dialectal)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (spinning) A rod used for spinning and then winding natural fibres (especially wool), usually consisting of a shaft and a circular whorl positioned at either the upper or lower end of the shaft when suspended vertically from the forming thread.
  • A rod which turns, or on which something turns.
    • the spindle of a vane
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2012-03
    • , author=(Henry Petroski) , title=Opening Doors , volume=100, issue=2, page=112-3 , magazine= citation , passage=A doorknob of whatever roundish shape is effectively a continuum of levers, with the axis of the latching mechanism—known as the spindle —being the fulcrum about which the turning takes place.}}
  • A rotary axis of a machine tool or power tool.
  • A worldwide tree of the genus Euonymus , originally used for making the spindles used for spinning wool.
  • An upright spike for holding paper documents by skewering.
  • The fusee of a watch.
  • A long and slender stalk resembling a spindle.
  • A yarn measure containing, in cotton yarn, 15,120 yards; in linen yarn, 14,400 yards.
  • (geometry) A solid generated by the revolution of a curved line about its base or double ordinate or chord.
  • Any marine univalve shell of the genus ; a (spindle stromb).
  • Any marine gastropod of the genus .

    • Synonyms

    * (a tree from the Euonymus genus) spindle tree

    Hypernyms

    * (a tree from the Euonymus genus) euonymus

    Verb

    (spindl)
  • To make into a long tapered shape.
  • To impale on a device for holding paper documents.
    • Do not fold, spindle or mutilate this document.

    Anagrams

    *

    External links

    * (Spindle) *