A Shaft
- (obsolete) The entire body of a long weapon, such as an arrow.
- The long, narrow, central body of a spear, arrow, or javelin.
- (by extension) Anything cast or thrown as a spear or javelin.
- 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. Shaft (golf) - Wikipedia
- A beam or ray of light.
- The main axis of a feather.
- (lacrosse) The long narrow body of a lacrosse stick.
- A vertical or inclined passage sunk into the earth as part of a mineو
- A vertical passage housing a lift or elevator; a liftshaft. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaft_(civil_engineering) Shaft sinking - Wikipedia
- A ventilation or heating conduit; an air duct. Ventilation shaft - Wikipedia
- (architecture) Any column or pillar, particularly the body of a column between its capital and pedestal.
- The main cylindrical part of the penis. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corpus_cavernosum_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". Palsgrave (circa 1530) glossed the French j[']empenne as "I 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.