shunt

American  

[shuhnt] / ʃʌnt /

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.

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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 British  

/ 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)

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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

Etymology

Origin of shunt

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

Example Sentences

Surgical treatment usually involves placement of a shunt.

From Los Angeles Times • May 23, 2025

The bouncer is intimidating, the attendants shunt customers to digital kiosks, and there are no attractive, informative displays for browsing.

From Slate • Apr. 19, 2025

Olusofa Popoola pressed the accelerator pedal rather than the brake causing his bus to shunt forward into a stationary bus which in turn hit Melissa Burr.

From BBC • Jan. 5, 2024

“I might shunt in the wall, so let’s not do that.”

From Seattle Times • Nov. 16, 2023

Shin did not know it, but to pass safely through the fence he needed a device that could shunt the flow of current from the fence to the ground.

From "Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West" by Blaine Harden

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