Shuttle

• POS: Noun, Verb (usu participle)
• HYPHEN: shut=tle

CIDE DICTIONARY

Shuttle, n. [Also shittle, OE. schitel, scytyl, schetyl; cf. OE. schitel a bolt of a door, AS. scyttes; all from AS. sceótan to shoot; akin to Dan. skyttel, skytte, shuttle, dial. Sw. skyttel, sköttel. Shoot, and cf. Shittle, Skittles.].

•  An instrument used in weaving for passing or shooting the thread of the woof from one side of the cloth to the other between the threads of the warp.  [1913 Webster]

  "Like shuttles through the loom, so swiftly glide
  My feathered hours."  [1913 Webster]
•  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.  [1913 Webster]
•  A shutter, as for a channel for molten metal.  [1913 Webster]

Shuttle box (Weaving), a case at the end of a shuttle race, to receive the shuttle after it has passed the thread of the warp; also, one of a set of compartments containing shuttles with different colored threads, which are passed back and forth in a certain order, according to the pattern of the cloth woven. -- Shutten race, a sort of shelf in a loom, beneath the warp, along which the shuttle passes; a channel or guide along which the shuttle passes in a sewing machine. -- Shuttle shell (Zoöl.), any one of numerous species of marine gastropods of the genus Volva, or Radius, having a smooth, spindle-shaped shell prolonged into a channel at each end.

Shuttle, v. i. 

 To move backwards and forwards, like a shuttle.  [1913 Webster]
"I had to fly far and wide, shutting athwart the big Babel, wherever his calls and pauses had to be."  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

Shuttle, n. & v.
--n.
1 a a bobbin with two pointed ends used for carrying the weft-thread across between the warp-threads in weaving. b a bobbin carrying the lower thread in a sewing-machine.
2 a train, bus, etc., going to and fro over a short route continuously.
3 = SHUTTLECOCK.
4 = space shuttle.
--v.
1 intr. & tr. move or cause to move to and fro like a shuttle.
2 intr. travel in a shuttle.

Idiom

shuttle armature Electr. an armature with a single coil wound on an elongated iron bobbin. shuttle diplomacy negotiations conducted by a mediator who travels successively to several countries. shuttle service a train or bus etc. service operating to and fro over a short route.

Etymology

OE scytel dart f. Gmc: cf. SHOOT

THESAURUS

Shuttle

Amtrak, air transport, air travel, airfreight, alternate, back and fill, baggage train, battledore and shuttlecock, cable railroad, choo-choo, cog railroad, cog railway, come and go, commute, ebb and flow, el, electric, electric train, elevated, express, express train, flier, freight, freight train, freighter, funicular, goods train, hand loom, hitch and hike, interurban, knitting machine, lightning express, limited, local, loom, metro, metronome, milk train, monorail, oscillator, parliamentary, parliamentary train, pass and repass, passenger train, pendulum, rack-and-pinion railroad, railroad train, range, rattler, reciprocate, ride and tie, rocker, rocking chair, rocking stone, rolling stock, seesaw, shunt, shuttle service, shuttle train, shuttlecock, special, streamliner, subway, swing, teeter, teeter-totter, teeterboard, teetery-bender, to-and-fro, train, tube, underground, vibrator, wax and wane, way train, weaver, wibble-wabble, wigwag, zigzag

ROGET THESAURUS

Shuttle

Navigation

N navigation, aquatics, boating, yachting, ship, oar, paddle, screw, sail, canvas, aileron, natation, swimming, fin, flipper, fish's tail, aerostation, aerostatics, aeronautics, balloonery, balloon, ballooning, aviation, airmanship, flying, flight, volitation, wing, pinion, rocketry, space travel, astronautics, orbital mechanics, orbiting, voyage, sail, cruise, passage, circumnavigation, periplus, headway, sternway, leeway, fairway, mariner, flight, trip, shuttle, run, airlift, sailing, volant, aerostatic, seafaring, nautical, maritime, naval, seagoing, coasting, afloat, navigable, aerial, aeronautic, grallatory, under way, under sail, under canvas, under steam, on the wing, in flight, in orbit, bon voyage, spread the thin oar and catch the driving gale.