different between shaft vs pull

English

Etymology

From Middle English schaft, from Old English s?eaft, from Proto-Germanic *skaftaz. Cognate with Dutch schacht, German German Schaft, Swedish skaft.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /???ft/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?æft/
• Rhymes: -??ft

Noun

shaft (plural shafts)

1. (obsolete) The entire body of a long weapon, such as an arrow.
   • c. 1343-1400,, Geoffrey Chaucer:

     His sleep, his meat, his drink, is him bereft, / That lean he wax, and dry as is a shaft.

   • c. 1515-1568,, Roger Ascham:

     A shaft hath three principal parts, the stele, the feathers, and the head.

2. The long, narrow, central body of a spear, arrow, or javelin.
3. (by extension) Anything cast or thrown as a spear or javelin.
   • c. 1608-1674,, John Milton:

     And the thunder, / Winged with red lightning and impetuous rage, / Perhaps hath spent his shafts.

   • c. 1752-1821,, Vicesimus Knox:

     Some kinds of literary pursuits […] have been attacked with all the shafts of ridicule.

4. Any long thin object, such as the handle of a tool, one of the poles between which an animal is harnessed to a vehicle, the driveshaft of a motorized vehicle with rear-wheel drive, an axle, etc.
5. A beam or ray of light.
   • 1912, Willa Cather, The Bohemian Girl:

     They were a fine company of old women, and a Dutch painter would have loved to find them there together, where the sun made bright patches on the floor and sent long, quivering shafts of gold through the dusky shade up among the rafters.

6. The main axis of a feather.

7. (lacrosse) The long narrow body of a lacrosse stick.

8. A vertical or inclined passage sunk into the earth as part of a mine

9. A vertical passage housing a lift or elevator; a liftshaft.

10. A ventilation or heating conduit; an air duct.

11. (architecture) Any column or pillar, particularly the body of a column between its capital and pedestal.
    • c. 1803-1882,, Ralph Waldo Emerson:

      Bid time and nature gently spare / The shaft we raise to thee.

12. The main cylindrical part of the penis.

13. The chamber of a blast furnace.

Usage notes

In Early Modern English, the shaft referred to the entire body of a long weapon, such that an arrow's "shaft" was composed of its "tip", "stale" or "steal", and "fletching". Palsgrave (circa 1530) glossed the French j[']empenne as "I fether a shafte, I put fethers upon a steale". Over time, the word came to be used in place of the former "stale" and lost its original meaning.

Synonyms

• stale, stail, steal, stele, steel (arrows, spears)
• (main axis of a feather): rachis
• mineshaft (vertical underground passage)

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

shaft (third-person singular simple present shafts, present participle shafting, simple past and past participle shafted)

1. (transitive, slang) To fuck over; to cause harm to, especially through deceit or treachery.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:deceive
2. (transitive) To equip with a shaft.
3. (transitive, slang) To fuck; to have sexual intercourse with.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:copulate with

   • 2018 Christian Cooke as Mickey Argyle, "Episode 2", Ordeal by Innocence (written by Sarah Phelps) 23 minutes

     Well at least I can get it up. No wonder Mary's going out of her head. Stuck with you sponging off her and not even a decent shafting for her trouble.

Translations

Anagrams

• Faths, hafts

Middle English

Etymology 1

From Old English s?eaft (“shaft”).

Noun

shaft

1. Alternative form of schaft (“shaft”)

Etymology 2

From Old English s?eaft (“creation”).

Noun

shaft

1. Alternative form of schaft (“creation”)

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: po?ol, IPA^(key): /p?l/
• (US) IPA^(key): [p????]
• Hyphenation: pull
• Rhymes: -?l

Etymology

Verb from Middle English pullen, from Old English pullian (“to pull, draw, tug, pluck off”). Related to West Frisian pûlje (“to shell, husk”), Middle Dutch pullen (“to drink”), Middle Dutch polen (“to peel, strip”), Low German pulen (“to pick, pluck, pull, tear, strip off husks”), Icelandic púla (“to work hard, beat”).

Noun from Middle English pul, pull, pulle, from the verb pullen (“to pull”).

Verb

pull (third-person singular simple present pulls, present participle pulling, simple past and past participle pulled)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To apply a force to (an object) so that it comes toward the person or thing applying the force.

   • He put forth his hand […] and pulled her in.
2. To gather with the hand, or by drawing toward oneself; to pluck.

3. (transitive) To attract or net; to pull in.
   • 2002, Marcella Ridlen Ray, Changing and Unchanging Face of United States Civil Society

     Television, a favored source of news and information, pulls the largest share of advertising monies.

   • 2011, Russell Simmons, ?Chris Morrow, Super Rich: A Guide to Having It All

     While the pimp can always pull a ho with his magnetism, he can never pull a nun. The nun is too in touch with her own compassionate and honest spirit to react to a spirit as negative and deceitful as that of the pimp.

4. (transitive, intransitive, Britain, Ireland, slang) To persuade (someone) to have sex with one.

5. (transitive) To remove (something), especially from public circulation or availability.

6. (transitive) To retrieve or generate for use.
   • 2006, Michael Bellomo, Joel Elad, How to Sell Anything on Amazon...and Make a Fortune!

     They'll go through their computer system and pull a report of all your order fulfillment records for the time period you specify.

7. (transitive, informal) To do or perform.

8. (with 'a' and the name of a person, place, event, etc.) To copy or emulate the actions or behaviour that is associated with the person or thing mentioned.

9. To toss a frisbee with the intention of launching the disc across the length of a field.
10. (intransitive) To row.
    • 1874, Marcus Clarke, For the Term of His Natural Life Chapter VI
11. (transitive, rowing) To achieve by rowing on a rowing machine.

    It had been a sort of race hitherto, and the rowers, with set teeth and compressed lips, had pulled stroke for stroke.

12. To draw apart; to tear; to rend.

    • He hath turned aside my ways, and pulled me in pieces; he hath made me desolate.

    • 2009, Ardie A. Davis, ?Chef Paul Kirk, America's Best BBQ (page 57)

      If you are going to pull or chop the pork butt, take it out of the smoker when the meat is in the higher temperature range, put it in a large pan, and let it rest, covered, for 15 to 20 minutes. Using heavy-duty dinner forks, pull the pork butt to shreds.

13. (transitive) To strain (a muscle, tendon, ligament, etc.).
14. (video games, transitive, intransitive) To draw (a hostile non-player character) into combat, or toward or away from some location or target.
    • 2003 April 9, "Richard Lawson" (username), "Monual's Willful Ignorance", in alt.games.everquest, Usenet:

      …we had to clear a long hallway, run up half way, pull the boss mob to us, and engage.

    • 2004 October 18, "Stush" (username), "Re: focus pull", in alt.games.dark-age-of-camelot, Usenet:

      Basically buff pet, have it pull lots of mobs, shield pet, chain heal pet, have your aoe casters finish off hurt mobs once pet gets good aggro.

    • 2005 August 2, "Brian" (username), "Re: How to tank Stratholme undead pulls?", in alt.games.warcraft, Usenet:

      This is the only thing that should get you to break off from your position, is to pull something off the healer.

    • 2007 April 10, "John Salerno" (username), "Re: Managing the Command Buttons", in alt.games.warcraft, Usenet:

      You could also set a fire trap, pull the mob toward it, then send in your pet….

    • 2008 August 18, "Mark (newsgroups)" (username), "Re: I'm a priest now!", in alt.games.warcraft, Usenet:

      Shield yourself, pull with Mind Blast if you want, or merely pull with SW:P to save mana, then wand, fear if you need to, but use the lowest rank fear.

15. (Britain) To score a certain number of points in a sport.

    How many points did you pull today, Albert?

16. (horse-racing) To hold back, and so prevent from winning.

    The favourite was pulled.

17. (printing, dated) To take or make (a proof or impression); so called because hand presses were worked by pulling a lever.
18. (cricket, golf) To strike the ball in a particular manner. (See noun sense.)
    • 1888, Robert Henry Lyttelton, Cricket Chapter 2

      Never pull a straight fast ball to leg.

19. (Britain) To draw beer from a pump, keg, or other source.

20. (rail transportation, US, of a railroad car) To pull out from a yard or station; to leave.
21. (now chiefly Scotland, England and US regional) To pluck or pick (flowers, fruit etc.).
    • 1751, Tobias Smollett, The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle, I.19:

      He and some of his companions one day entered a garden in the suburbs, and having indulged their appetites, desired to know what satisfaction they must make for the fruit they had pulled.

Synonyms

• (apply force to (something) so it comes toward): drag, tow, tug, yank
• (slang: to persuade to have sex with one): score
• (to remove from circulation): recall, withdraw, yank
• (to do, to perform): carry out, complete, do, execute, perform
• (to retrieve or generate for use): generate, get, get hold of, get one's hands on, lay one's hands on, obtain, retrieve
• (to succeed in finding a person with whom to have sex.): score

Antonyms

• (apply force to (something) so it comes towards one): push, repel, shove

Hyponyms

Derived terms

Related terms

See also pulling

Translations

Interjection

pull

1. (sports) Command used by a target shooter to request that the target be released/launched.

Noun

pull (countable and uncountable, plural pulls)

1. An act of pulling (applying force toward oneself)

   • I found myself suddenly awaked with a violent pull upon the ring, which was fastened at the top of my box.

2. An attractive force which causes motion towards the source

3. (figuratively, by extension) An advantage over somebody; means of influencing.

4. Any device meant to be pulled, as a lever, knob, handle, or rope

5. (slang, dated) Something in one's favour in a comparison or a contest.

6. Appeal or attraction (e.g. of a movie star)
7. (Internet, uncountable) The situation where a client sends out a request for data from a server, as in server pull, pull technology
8. A journey made by rowing
   • 1874, Marcus Clarke, For the Term of His Natural Life Chapter V

     As Blunt had said, the burning ship lay a good twelve miles from the Malabar, and the pull was a long and a weary one. Once fairly away from the protecting sides of the vessel that had borne them thus far on their dismal journey, the adventurers seemed to have come into a new atmosphere.

9. (dated) A contest; a struggle.

   va wrestling pull}}

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Carew to this entry?)

10. (obsolete, poetic) Loss or violence suffered.
11. (colloquial) The act of drinking; a mouthful or swig of a drink.

    (Can we find and add a quotation of Charles Dickens to this entry?)

12. (cricket) A type of stroke by which a leg ball is sent to the off side, or an off ball to the on side; a pull shot.
    • 1887, R. A. Proctor, Longman's Magazine

      The pull is not a legitimate stroke, but bad cricket.

13. (golf) A mishit shot which travels in a straight line and (for a right-handed player) left of the intended path.
14. (printing, historical) A single impression from a handpress.
15. (printing) A proof sheet.

Synonyms

• (act of pulling): tug, yank
• (attractive force): attraction
• (device meant to be pulled): handle, knob, lever, rope
• (influence): influence, sway
• (a puff on a cigarette): drag, toke (marijuana cigarette)

Antonyms

• (act of pulling): push, shove
• (attractive force): repulsion
• (device meant to be pulled): button, push, push-button
• (influence):

Derived terms

• ring-pull
• rug-pull

Related terms

• on the pull
• pull cord
• ring-pull, ring pull

Translations

Estonian

Etymology

From Low German bulle.

Noun

pull (genitive pulli, partitive pulli)

1. bull
2. ox

Declension

French

Etymology

Clipping of pull-over, from English pullover.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pyl/, /pul/

Noun

pull m (plural pulls)

1. pullover