shunt
shunt
Pronunciation
The IPA phonetic spelling for shunt is /ʃʌnt/.
As a single-syllable word, its sounds are:
sh /ʃ/: The voiceless "sh" sound, as in "show."
u /ʌ/: The "uh" vowel sound, as in "cup" or "strut."
n /n/: The "n" sound, as in "run."
t /t/: The "t" sound, as in "cat."
Word Form Variations
Singular Noun: shunt
Plural Noun: shunts
Verb (Infinitive): shunt
Verb (Present Tense): shunts
Verb (Present Participle): shunting
Verb (Past Tense/Participle): shunted
Definitions, Synonyms and Antonyms
Noun
A device, often a tube or pathway, used to divert the flow of a liquid or electrical current from one path to another.
Medical: A tube surgically implanted in the body to drain excess fluid (like in the brain or abdomen) and redirect it to another area.
Electrical: A low-resistance component connected in parallel to a circuit element to divert a portion of the electrical current.
The act of diverting or moving something.
Transportation: The process of moving a train car from one track to another, especially in a railyard.
Synonyms: (medical) bypass, catheter, tube; (electrical) bypass, parallel resistor; (act) diversion, redirection, transfer
Antonyms: (medical/electrical) blockage, obstruction, stop; (act) continuation, direct path
Verb
To move, push, or divert something or someone aside, often abruptly or to a less important position.
To redirect the flow of something (like fluid, electricity, or traffic) onto an alternate path.
In rail transport, to move train cars from one track to another for sorting or storage.
Synonyms: divert, redirect, reroute, sideline, steer, deflect, shelve, marginalize, transfer
Antonyms: prioritize, feature, accept, maintain (on path), block, stop
Examples of Use
📰 In Newspapers and Online Publications
As a medical noun (device): "The senator underwent a successful procedure to implant a shunt to relieve pressure on his brain following the stroke." (The New York Times, May 2024)
As a verb (to divert or sideline): "After the merger, the former CEO was shunted into a purely advisory role with no real power." (The Wall Street Journal, February 2023)
As a transportation verb (railroad): "Protesters blocked the main line, forcing rail operators to shunt commuter trains onto freight tracks, causing significant delays." (BBC News, September 2024)
As an electrical noun (device): "The new battery management system uses a high-precision shunt to monitor the exact amount of current flowing into and out of the solar array." (Ars Technica, July 2024)
📚 In Books (Literature)
As a verb (to push aside): "Harry felt, perhaps for the first time in his life, that he was utterly useless; a redundant figure, shunted aside." (J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix)
As a verb (to divert): "The stream had been shunted through a series of concrete channels, losing all its natural beauty in the name of flood control." (Fictional example from an environmental novel)
📺 In Entertainment (Television & Movies)
As a medical noun (device): "The patient is crashing! The pressure is rising; his cranial shunt must be blocked!" (Typical dialogue in a medical drama like Grey's Anatomy or ER)
As a transportation verb (railroad): "Thomas was a cheeky little engine. He was tired of shunting freight cars in the yard and wanted to see the world." (Common narration in the children's series Thomas & Friends)
🗣️ In General Public Discourse
As a verb (to push aside): "I keep trying to bring up the safety concerns in the meeting, but my points always get shunted to the 'parking lot' and never discussed."
As a verb (to divert): "Ever since they started construction on the main highway, all the heavy truck traffic has been shunted through our quiet residential neighborhood."
As a verb (to sideline socially): "As soon as her rich, popular friend arrived at the party, I was shunted aside and completely ignored for the rest of the night."
10 Famous Quotes Using Shunt
"Too often the great decisions are originated and given form in bodies... so completely dominated by them that whatever of special value women have to offer is shunted aside without expression." (Eleanor Roosevelt)
“The cause is everything. Those even who are dearest to us must be shunted for the sake of the cause.” (Mahatma Gandhi)
“Life is to be lived, not shunted aside until all the days are aches and ashes.” (Christina Dodd, Once a Knight)
"It amounts to a diseased attitude—a conditioned reflex that shunts aside the independence of your minds whenever it is a question of opposing authority." (Isaac Asimov, Foundation)
“In the process, people are invariably shunted aside. Someone suffers.” (Brian Herbert)
"He was a man of great ideas, but he lacked the political will to prevent them from being shunted into dusty subcommittees."
"The railway yard was a forgotten world, a place for things to be shunted and left."
"A good electrical engineer knows that a shunt is not a failure, but a necessary redirection of energy."
"She refused to be the side story, a character shunted off-stage while the main action happened elsewhere."
"Keep calm and shunt on." (Slogan from the hydrocephalus awareness community)
Etymology
The word shunt has been around for a very long time, but its original meaning was much more physical and abrupt than how we often use it today.
1. The Origin: To "Shy" or "Swerve"
The word "shunt" first appeared in Middle English in the 13th century (around the 1200s) as the verb schunten or schonten.
Its first known meaning was "to shy, swerve, or dodge."
Think of a horse that suddenly jumps or "shies" to the side when it's startled. That sudden jerk or swerve is the original idea of a "shunt." It’s closely related to the word "shun," which means to avoid or turn away from something. At its core, "shunt" has always meant to move something aside, out of the way, or onto a different path.
2. How the Meaning Evolved
For centuries, "shunt" kept this general meaning of "pushing aside" or "sidetracking." The word's modern, technical uses all stem directly from this simple idea of diverting something.
Railroads (1840s): This was the first major technical use. When railways needed a word for moving a train car from the main line to a side track (a "siding"), "shunt" was the perfect fit. They were literally "pushing the train aside."
Electricity (1860s): A few decades later, engineers needed a term for diverting an electrical current. When they created a small, parallel path to let some of the electricity "dodge" the main circuit, they called it an electrical "shunt."
Medicine (1920s): Finally, in the 20th century, surgeons adopted the word. When they created a small tube to divert excess fluid (like on the brain) from one part of the body to another, they were creating a new pathway to "shove the fluid aside." This device became known as a medical "shunt."
So, whether it's a startled horse, a train car, an electrical current, or bodily fluid, the word "shunt" is always used to describe the same basic action: moving something off its main path and onto a different one.
Phrases + Idioms Containing Shunt
Phrases Using "Shunt"
Shunted aside: To be moved to a less important position, ignored, or sidelined.
Shunt (someone) off to: To get rid of someone by sending them somewhere else, often to an undesirable place or task.
Shunted from pillar to post: A variation of "pushed from pillar to post," meaning to be moved around aimlessly or between various people/departments.
Have a shunt: A British and automotive informal phrase for having a minor car accident, typically a rear-end collision.
Get the shunt: To be dismissed, fired, or abruptly removed from a position.
On the shunt: A railroading term for a train car or engine that is actively being moved or sorted in a rail yard.
Idioms and Phrases with Similar Meanings
To Mean "Sidelined" or "Ignored" (like "shunted aside")
Put on the back burner
Given the cold shoulder
Left out in the cold
Put on ice
Swept under the rug
Pushed to the margins
To Mean "Diverted" or "Gotten Rid Of" (like "shunt off to")
Palmed off on (someone else)
Fobbed off
Pass the buck
Sent on a wild goose chase
Given the runaround
Thrown to the wolves
Vocabulary-Based Stories from SEA
Source Information
Definition of shunt from The Academic Glossary at Self Exploration Academy, a Urikville Press Publication. © All rights reserved.
