Crossword Dictionary

What's The Definition Of Shunt?

\Shunt\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Shunted}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Shunting}.] [Prov. E., to move from, to put off, fr. OE. shunten, schunten, schounten; cf. D. schuinte a slant, slope, Icel. skunda to hasten. Cf. {Shun}.] 1. To shun; to move from. [Obs. or Prov. Eng.] 2. To cause to move suddenly; to give a sudden start to; to shove. [Obs. or Prov. Eng.] --Ash. 3. To turn off to one side; especially, to turn off, as a grain or a car upon a side track; to switch off; to shift. For shunting your late partner on to me. --T. Hughes. 4. (Elec.) To provide with a shunt; as, to shunt a galvanometer.
\Shunt\, v. i. To go aside; to turn off.
\Shunt\, n. [Cf. D. schuinte slant, slope, declivity. See {Shunt}, v. t.] 1. (Railroad) A turning off to a side or short track, that the principal track may be left free. 2. (Elec.) A conducting circuit joining two points in a conductor, or the terminals of a galvanometer or dynamo, so as to form a parallel or derived circuit through which a portion of the current may pass, for the purpose of regulating the amount passing in the main circuit. 3. (Gunnery) The shifting of the studs on a projectile from the deep to the shallow sides of the grooves in its discharge from a shunt gun. {Shunt dynamo} (Elec.), a dynamo in which the field circuit is connected with the main circuit so as to form a shunt to the letter, thus employing a portion of the current from the armature to maintain the field. {Shunt gun}, a firearm having shunt rifling. See under {Rifling}.