Crossword Dictionary

What's The Definition Of Shuttle?

\Shut"tle\, n. [Also shittle, OE. schitel, scytyl, schetyl; cf. OE. schitel a bolt of a door, AS. scyttes; all from AS. sce['o]tan to shoot; akin to Dan. skyttel, skytte, shuttle, dial. Sw. skyttel, sk["o]ttel. [root]159. See {Shoot}, and cf. {Shittle}, {Skittles}.] 1. 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. Like shuttles through the loom, so swiftly glide My feathered hours. --Sandys. 2. 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. 3. A shutter, as for a channel for molten metal. [R.] {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} (Zo["o]l.), 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.
\Shut"tle\, v. i. To move backwards and forwards, like a shuttle. I had to fly far and wide, shutting athwart the big Babel, wherever his calls and pauses had to be. --Carlyle.