shuttle
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shuttle
- /ˈʃʌtəl/ US
- [ˈʃʌɾəɫ] US
Rhymes with -ʌtəl
Where it comes from
From a merger of two words:
* Middle English shutel, shotel, schetel, schettell, schyttyl, scutel (“bar; bolt”), from Old English sċyttel, sċutel (“bar; bolt”), equivalent to shut + -le
* Middle English shutel, schetil, shotil, shetel, schootyll, shutyll, schytle, scytyl (“missile; projectile; spear”), from Old English sċytel, sċutel (“dart, arrow”), from Proto-Germanic *skutilaz.
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.
noun shuttles
- A tool used to carry the woof back and forth between the warp threads on a loom. My dayes are ſwifter then a weauers ſhuttle, and are ſpent without hope.
- 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.
- 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.
- Such a transport vehicle; a shuttle bus; a space shuttle. 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.
- 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).
- A shuttlecock.
- A shutter, as for a channel for molten metal.
verb shuttles · shuttling · shuttled
- To go or send back and forth between two places. 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 Wa
-
To transport by shuttle or by means of a shuttle service.
Guests can be shuttled to and from the hotel for no extra cost.
Similar: chauffeur
Thesaurus
Closest in meaning: birdie, shuttlecock, bird, shift, mule, wagon, feeder, launch, sled, vehicle, soe, navette, bus, ferry, blow, commuting
Translations
Every language
noun weaving tool
| Español | lanzadera |
|---|---|
| 한국어 | 북 buk |
| 日本語 | 梭 hi, 下糸入れ shita-ito-ire |
| 中文 | 梭子 suōzi |
| हिन्दी | ढरकी ḍharkī |
| Português | naveta, lançadeira |
| Français | navette |
| Deutsch | Weberschiffchen |
| Italiano | navetta, spoletta |
| Ελληνικά | σαΐτα saḯta |
| Română | navetă, suveică |
| Русский | челно́к čelnók |
| Tiếng Việt | thoi |
| العربية | مَكُّوك makkūk |
noun the sliding thread holder in a sewing machine
| Español | lanzadera |
|---|---|
| Français | navette |
| Deutsch | Schützen, Webschützen |
| Русский | челно́к čelnók |
noun transport service
| Español | lanzadera, bus de cortesía, autobús de enlace, autobús enlazador |
|---|---|
| 한국어 | 셔틀 syeoteul |
| 日本語 | シャトル shatoru |
| 中文 | 穿梭班機 /穿梭班机 chuānsuō bānjī, 班車 /班车 bānchē |
| हिन्दी | शटल śaṭal |
| Português | traslado |
| Français | navette |
| Deutsch | Pendelverkehr, Shuttlebus |
| Italiano | navetta |
| Română | navetă |
| Русский | челно́к čelnók, челно́чный тра́нспорт čelnóčnyj tránsport, шаттл šattl |
| العربية | مَكُوك makūk |
verb to go back and forth
| Italiano | fare la spola |
|---|---|
| Ελληνικά | πηγαινοέρχομαι pigainoérchomai |
| Română | a face naveta |
verb to transport by shuttle
| Español | transportar |
|---|---|
| Ελληνικά | διαβιβάζω diavivázo, μεταφέρω metaféro |
| Română | transporta |
Talk about this word "shuttle." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/shuttle. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. shuttle. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/shuttle "shuttle." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/shuttle.Cite this
@misc{shuttle_2026,
title = {shuttle},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/shuttle},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
