shunt

[shuhnt]

verb (used with object)

1. to shove or turn (someone or something) aside or out of the way.

2. to sidetrack; get rid of.

3. Electricity.

   1. to divert (a part of a current) by connecting a circuit element in parallel with another.

   2. to place or furnish with a shunt.

4. Railroads.,  to shift (rolling stock) from one track to another; switch.

5. Surgery.

   1. to divert blood or other fluid by means of a shunt.

   2. the tube itself.

6. to move or turn aside or out of the way.

7. (of a locomotive with rolling stock) to move from track to track or from point to point, as in a railroad yard; switch.

noun

1. the act of shunting; shift.

2. Also called bypass. Electricity.,  a conducting element bridged across a circuit or a portion of a circuit, establishing a current path auxiliary to the main circuit, as a resistor placed across the terminals of an ammeter for increasing the range of the device.

3. a railroad switch.

4. Surgery.,  a channel through which blood or other bodily fluid is diverted from its normal path by surgical reconstruction or by a synthetic tube.

5. Anatomy.,  an anastomosis.

adjective

1. Electricity.,  being, having, or operating by means of a shunt.

   a shunt circuit; a shunt generator.

shunt

/ ʃʌnt /

verb

1. to turn or cause to turn to one side; move or be moved aside

2. railways to transfer (rolling stock) from track to track

3. electronics to divert or be diverted through a shunt

4. (tr) to evade by putting off onto someone else

5. slang,  (tr) motor racing to crash (a car)

noun

1. the act or an instance of shunting

2. a railway point

3. electronics a low-resistance conductor connected in parallel across a device, circuit, or part of a circuit to provide an alternative path for a known fraction of the current

4. med a channel that bypasses the normal circulation of the blood: a congenital abnormality or surgically induced

5. informal,  a collision which occurs when a vehicle runs into the back of the vehicle in front

Other Word Forms

• shunter noun
• unshunted adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of shunt¹

1175–1225; (v.) Middle English schunten, shonten to shy (said of horses); (noun) Middle English, derivative of the v.; akin to shun

Word History and Origins

Origin of shunt¹

C13: perhaps from shunen to _shun

Example Sentences

His pitch to the membership was to move away from the tried-and-tested, with a decisive shunt to the left and a more confrontational communication style.

From BBC

Currently the only way for trains to cross the Strait is to have the coaches shunted onto ferries and carried over the sea in a 30-minute journey.

From BBC

One time, a teenage girl, writing for her high school newspaper, was roughly shunted aside by the sportswriter pack before a Cincinnati Reds game.

From Salon

Hundreds of journalists were accredited for a process that would, surely, dominate headlines in France throughout its three-month duration and force a queasy public to confront a crime too often shunted to the sidelines.

From BBC

Surgical treatment usually involves placement of a shunt.

From Los Angeles Times

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