n. A long slender rod forming the body of a spear or lance; also, the spear or lance itself.n. An arrow; a long arrow, used with the long-bow, as distinguished from the bolt, or quarrel, used with the crossbow. See arrow, broad-arrow, flight-arrow.n. Something resembling an arrow or a missile in shape, motion, or effect: as, shafts of light.n. A body of a long cylindrical shape; an unbranched stem, stalk, trunk, or the like; the columnar part of anything.n. A handle, as of a tool, utensil, instrument, or the like: as, the shaft of a hammer, ax, whip, etc.n. A long lath at each end of the heddles of a loom.n. One of the bars or trams between a pair of which a horse is harnessed to a vehicle; a thill; also, the pole or tongue of a carriage, chariot, or the like.n. In mining, a vertical or inclined excavation made in opening the ground for mining purposes.n. In milit. mining, a vertical pit the bottom of which serves as a point of departure for a gallery or series of galleries leading to mines or chambers filled with explosives.n. The interior space of a blast-furnace above the hearth, and especially the part where the diameter remains nearly the same, or that which is above the boshes. More often called the body of the furnace.n. Creation; a creation; a creature.n. Make; form; figure.n. The main part of an arrow to which are fixed a bit of nocked horn at the butt and a head or pile at the point. See foreshaft.n. In golf, the part of a club to which the head is joined.n. A shaft on a gas or internal-combustion motor, making one turn to two of the motor-shaft, and carrying the cams and other mechanisms for valves and ignition, when the motor operates on the Otto cycle (see cycle, 12), in which one working stroke occurs in each two revolutions of the fly-wheel shaft.