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shunt

Pronunciation: /ʃʌnt/
Translate shunt | into French | into German | into Italian | into Spanish
Definition of shunt

verb

  • 1 [with object and adverbial of direction] push or pull (a train or part of a train) from the main line to a siding or from one line of rails to another:their train had been shunted into a siding
  • push or shove (someone or something):chairs were being shunted to and fro
  • direct or divert to a less important place or position:amateurs were gradually being shunted to filing jobs
  • 2 [with object] provide (an electrical current) with a conductor joining two points of a circuit, through which more or less of the current may be diverted: these components are designed to shunt electrical surges away from microcircuits

noun

  • 1an act of pushing or shoving something: the engine turnround was helped by a gravity shunt the car would turn into a fireball when hit by even quite gentle shunts
  • British informal a motor accident, especially a collision of vehicles travelling one close behind the other: a lorry shed its load, causing an eight-vehicle shunt
  • 2an electrical conductor joining two points of a circuit, through which more or less of a current may be diverted.
  • Surgery an alternative path for the passage of the blood or other body fluid: [as modifier]:shunt surgery

Origin:

Middle English (in the sense 'move suddenly aside'): perhaps from shun

shunt in other Oxford dictionaries

Definition of shunt in the US English dictionary

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