Definitions for shuttleˈʃʌt l

Random House Webster's College Dictionary

shut•tleˈʃʌt l(n.; v.)-tled, -tling.

(n.)a device in a loom for passing or shooting the filling thread through the shed from one side of the web to the other, usu. consisting of a boat-shaped piece of wood containing a bobbin on which the filling is wound.
the sliding container that carries the lower thread in a sewing machine.
a public conveyance, as a train, airplane, or bus, that travels back and forth at regular intervals over a route.
Category: Transportation
Ref: shuttlecock (def. 1). 1
(often cap.)
Category: Common Vocabulary, Aerospace
Ref: space shuttle.
(v.t.)to cause to move to and fro by or as if by a shuttle.
(v.i.)to move to and fro.

Origin of shuttle:

bef. 900; ME shotil, OE scytel dart, arrow, c. ON skutill harpoon; akin to shut , shoot1

Princeton's WordNet

shuttlecock, bird, birdie, shuttle(noun)
badminton equipment consisting of a ball of cork or rubber with a crown of feathers
shuttle(noun)
public transport that consists of a bus or train or airplane that plies back and forth between two points
shuttle(verb)
bobbin that passes the weft thread between the warp threads
shuttle(verb)
travel back and forth between two points

Kernerman English Learner's Dictionary

shuttle(noun)ˈʃʌt l
a bus, train, etc. that travels short distances
a shuttle taking people from the parking lot to the airport terminal

Wiktionary

shuttle(Noun)
The part of a loom that carries the woof back and forth between the warp threads
shuttle(Noun)
A transport service (such as a bus or train) that goes back and forth between two places.
shuttle(Noun)
Any other item that moves repeatedly back and forth between two positions, possibly transporting something else with it between those points (such as, in chemistry, a molecular shuttle).
shuttle(Verb)
To go back and forth between two places.
shuttle(Verb)
To transport by shuttle or by means of a shuttle service.

Origin: From scytel, from skutilaz (compare Old Norse skutill), from skut- (see shoot). Name for loom weaving instrument, recorded from 1338, is from a sense of being "shot" across the threads. The back-and-forth imagery inspired the extension to "passenger trains" in 1895, aircraft in 1942, and spacecraft in 1969, as well as older terms such as shuttlecock.

Webster Dictionary

Shuttle(noun)
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
Shuttle(noun)
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
Shuttle(noun)
a shutter, as for a channel for molten metal
Shuttle(verb)
to move backwards and forwards, like a shuttle