How to Use shaft in a Sentence

shaft

1 of 2 noun
Definition of shaftnext
Synonyms for shaftnext
  • The robot-makers are a shaft of light at the bottom of the well.
    — Kat McGowan, WIRED, 4 Jan. 2024
  • The tall version also solves the issue of a low shaft height.
    — Meg Carney, Field & Stream, 4 Jan. 2024
  • For styling, use a 1 & 1/4-inch curling iron at the roots and mid shaft to give it a bend and leave the ends straight.
    — Rosa Sanchez, Harper's BAZAAR, 9 Mar. 2023
  • Then flip the file 90-degrees and smooth out any rough areas on the nail shaft.
    — Bradley Ford, Popular Mechanics, 12 Jan. 2023
  • The eastern side of the shaft is 350 feet tall, its grid of square windows stacked in a dark blue skin.
    — John King, San Francisco Chronicle, 30 Oct. 2022
  • The Michelle Suede Classic Boot has a tall shaft to keep your shins and ankles cozy.
    — Nicol Natale, Peoplemag, 1 Oct. 2023
  • With a 7-inch shaft, these boots are tall enough to keep you warm, but not too bulky for your commute.
    — Grace Wu, Good Housekeeping, 14 Nov. 2022
  • Built with a 100% carbon fiber shaft, the pole folds (Z-style) to just over a foot to stash just about anywhere.
    — Lindsey Lapointe, Field & Stream, 4 Jan. 2024
  • The opposing forces make the coil spin quickly, turning the drive shaft, which makes the wheels go round.
    — Andrew Zaleski, Popular Mechanics, 22 Aug. 2023
  • The cleaning kit includes a bristle brush and a scraper that helps clean the blades, discs, and shaft.
    — Michelle Love, Better Homes & Gardens, 14 Sep. 2023
  • Off one tunnel shaft was a cage made with metal bars and a door that locked from the outside.
    — NBC News, 8 Feb. 2024
  • To address the problem, Craig would need a grease gun, a tool that helps lubricate the drive shaft.
    — Katherine Rosman Lanna Apisukh, New York Times, 31 Aug. 2023
  • The plungers are powered by an output shaft on the engine or from a motor.
    — Roy Berendsohn, Popular Mechanics, 21 Feb. 2023
  • This classic style has an 8-inch shaft with a 14-inch opening.
    — Nicola Fumo, Peoplemag, 31 Dec. 2023
  • As Hazel mines, a few people sit behind the drill shaft atop of a cocoon of wires and metal.
    — Ricky Carioti, Washington Post, 7 July 2023
  • To keep pits and mine shafts dry, and also to process ore, Barrick pulls huge volumes of water out of the ground.
    — Christopher Flavelle, New York Times, 24 Nov. 2023
  • The fractures and scars show that they were distally hafted – attached to the split end of a shaft.
    — Laure Metz, Discover Magazine, 15 Mar. 2023
  • Now's a great time to grab yourself a pair of winter essentials like the tall leather shaft boots.
    — Maura Jenkins, Glamour, 27 Nov. 2023
  • Strain on rotor shaft The torque meter measures the strain on the rotor shaft.
    — Ned Rozell | Alaska Science, Anchorage Daily News, 26 Aug. 2023
  • This meant that Herring and Rambo needed to move forward from the air shaft.
    — Luke Mogelson, The New Yorker, 26 Dec. 2022
  • An aluminum shaft helps make Garant’s Yukon the lightest shovel in our test by over a quarter of a pound.
    — Adrienne Donica, Popular Mechanics, 22 Nov. 2022
  • For your scrotum and shaft, go extra slow and stretch the skin to flatten it and make easier to trim.
    — Garrett Munce, Men's Health, 20 July 2023
  • When the motor's shaft spins, the washer throws it off-balance, making the whole motor—and the brush along with it—vibrate and move.
    — Rachelle Doorley, Parents, 16 Aug. 2023
  • In front of a wall of Catholic icons in gold frames, the smoke of copal, the Mesoamerican incense, cut swirls through shafts of sunlight.
    — Flora Stubbs, Travel + Leisure, 5 Feb. 2024
  • For prostate stimulation, Lee says a pick with a curved shaft and bulbous head will hit the right spot.
    — Jennifer Hussein, Allure, 19 Nov. 2023
  • There were pipes, stairs and a giant shaft that went nowhere — relics from 130 years of building and rebuilding.
    — William J. Broad George Etheredge, New York Times, 23 Dec. 2022
  • The clubs feature a lighter head weight, and a unique construction with a more delicate shaft and grip.
    — Sydney Page, Washington Post, 16 Jan. 2024
  • Dealers will inspect the left rear axle shaft date code and replace the axle shaft as necessary, free of charge.
    — Mike Snider, USA TODAY, 5 Sep. 2023
  • The researchers uncovered a stack of spears with shafts over 10 feet (3 meters) long at the site, and many experts think that warfare was common in the time period.
    — Katie Hunt, CNN, 20 Mar. 2024
  • Six of those cases were confirmed to have damaged or worn out intermediate shafts.
    — William Gavin, Quartz, 29 Mar. 2024
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shaft

2 of 2 verb
  • How can the Bulldogs get to the second weekend, fans ask, if they are shafted in their seed line?
    — David Woods, Indianapolis Star, 10 Mar. 2018
  • Every team has one or two players who have been shafted by the system.
    — Paul Dehner Jr., Cincinnati.com, 25 Aug. 2017
  • Lind’s heart genuinely hurts for those shafted by oligarchy.
    — New York Times, 17 Jan. 2020
  • Part of the problem, experts say, is that health care fraud is often misunderstood as shafting greedy insurers — not the folks paying for health insurance.
    — Marshall Allen, ProPublica, 19 July 2019
  • The unfounded hostility to that film basically killed its release and then shafted the chances of the movie and of Ryan Gosling’s contemplative performance in the awards races.
    — David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter, 1 Oct. 2019
  • Only a socialist could do that to his brother, only a socialist could regard familial ties as being so trivial as to shaft his own brother.
    — Julia Webster, Time, 5 Sep. 2019
  • But some of the same forces that contributed to Trump’s victory here feed the skepticism over the tax bill — a sense that working people are getting shafted, a jaded view of Washington, and deep skepticism toward Congress.
    — Craig Gilbert, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 18 Dec. 2017
  • For one, Wonder Woman was completely shafted, as was the sublimely hilarious Girls Trip.
    — Christopher Rosa, Glamour, 11 Dec. 2017
  • Do your research, ask questions and go over every detail personally to avoid being shafted or misinformed.
    — Eugenia Last, The Mercury News, 18 Sep. 2019
  • The government was forced to redraft certain settlements with owners after shafting them by not accounting for valuable nearby water rights.
    — James Warren, The Hive, 14 Dec. 2017
  • Almost all the pillars of President Trump's presidency — immigration, jobs, mistrust of allies, coloring Washington as a feckless, greedy swamp — can be traced back to one of his core beliefs: America is getting shafted by the rest of the world.
    — Amber Phillips, Washington Post, 19 Sep. 2017
  • Its longtime token black character, John Diggle, sees his character development continually shafted to make room for Oliver Queen’s brooding sessions.
    — Clarkisha Kent, The Root, 11 Sep. 2017
  • How can the Bulldogs get to the second weekend, fans ask, if they are shafted in their seed line?
    — David Woods, Indianapolis Star, 10 Mar. 2018
  • Every team has one or two players who have been shafted by the system.
    — Paul Dehner Jr., Cincinnati.com, 25 Aug. 2017
  • Lind’s heart genuinely hurts for those shafted by oligarchy.
    — New York Times, 17 Jan. 2020
  • Part of the problem, experts say, is that health care fraud is often misunderstood as shafting greedy insurers — not the folks paying for health insurance.
    — Marshall Allen, ProPublica, 19 July 2019
  • The unfounded hostility to that film basically killed its release and then shafted the chances of the movie and of Ryan Gosling’s contemplative performance in the awards races.
    — David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter, 1 Oct. 2019
  • Only a socialist could do that to his brother, only a socialist could regard familial ties as being so trivial as to shaft his own brother.
    — Julia Webster, Time, 5 Sep. 2019
  • But some of the same forces that contributed to Trump’s victory here feed the skepticism over the tax bill — a sense that working people are getting shafted, a jaded view of Washington, and deep skepticism toward Congress.
    — Craig Gilbert, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 18 Dec. 2017
  • For one, Wonder Woman was completely shafted, as was the sublimely hilarious Girls Trip.
    — Christopher Rosa, Glamour, 11 Dec. 2017
  • Do your research, ask questions and go over every detail personally to avoid being shafted or misinformed.
    — Eugenia Last, The Mercury News, 18 Sep. 2019
  • The government was forced to redraft certain settlements with owners after shafting them by not accounting for valuable nearby water rights.
    — James Warren, The Hive, 14 Dec. 2017
  • Almost all the pillars of President Trump's presidency — immigration, jobs, mistrust of allies, coloring Washington as a feckless, greedy swamp — can be traced back to one of his core beliefs: America is getting shafted by the rest of the world.
    — Amber Phillips, Washington Post, 19 Sep. 2017
  • Its longtime token black character, John Diggle, sees his character development continually shafted to make room for Oliver Queen’s brooding sessions.
    — Clarkisha Kent, The Root, 11 Sep. 2017

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'shaft.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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