An arrow; a missile weapin; as the archer and the shaft. So loftly was the pile, a Parthian bow . Whith vigor drawn must send the shaft below.

In mining, a pit or long narrow opening or entrance into a mine.

In architecture, the shaft of a column is the body of it, between the base and the capital.

Any thing straight; as the shaft of a steeple, and many other things.

The stem or stock of a fether or quill.

The pole of a carriage, sometimes called tongue or neap. The thills of a chaise or geg are also called shafts.

The handle of a weapon. Shaft, or white-shaft, a species of Trochilus or humming bird, having a bill twenty lines in levgth, and two long fethers in the middle of its tail.