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Added 9 October 2026

shaft

/ˈʃɑːft/ noun

Categories: LanguageThingsUncommon Words

noun Definition from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about shaft at Wordnik → Where our words come from →

  1. The entire body of a long weapon, such as an arrow.
  2. The long, narrow, central body of a spear, arrow, or javelin.
    Her hand slipped off the javelin's shaft towards the spearpoint and that's why her score was lowered.
  3. Anything cast or thrown as a spear or javelin.

verb

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

Origin

From Middle English chafte, saft, scaft, schaft, schafte, scheft, shaffet, shaft, from Old English sċeaft, from Proto-West Germanic *skaft, from Proto-Germanic *skaftaz (“shaft”), from Proto-Indo-European *skeh₂p- (“club, rod, shaft, staff”).

From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)

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