shunt

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Shunted; p. pr. & vb. n. Shunting. ] [ Prov. E., to move from, to put off, fr. OE. shunten, schunten, schounten; cf. D. schuinte a slant, slope, Icel. skunda to hasten. Cf. Shun. ] 1. To shun; to move from. [ Obs. or Prov. Eng. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To cause to move suddenly; to give a sudden start to; to shove. [ Obs. or Prov. Eng. ] Ash. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To turn off to one side; especially, to turn off, as a grain or a car upon a side track; to switch off; to shift. [ 1913 Webster ]

For shunting your late partner on to me. T. Hughes. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. (Elec.) To provide with a shunt; as, to shunt a galvanometer. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Cf. D. schuinte slant, slope, declivity. See Shunt, v. t. ] 1. (Railroad) A turning off to a side or short track, that the principal track may be left free. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Elec.) A conducting circuit joining two points in a conductor, or the terminals of a galvanometer or dynamo, so as to form a parallel or derived circuit through which a portion of the current may pass, for the purpose of regulating the amount passing in the main circuit. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (Gunnery) The shifting of the studs on a projectile from the deep to the shallow sides of the grooves in its discharge from a shunt gun. [ 1913 Webster ]

Shunt dynamo (Elec.), a dynamo in which the field circuit is connected with the main circuit so as to form a shunt to the letter, thus employing a portion of the current from the armature to maintain the field. --
Shunt gun, a firearm having shunt rifling. See under Rifling. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Railroad) A person employed to shunt cars from one track to another. [ 1913 Webster ]

p. pr. & vb. n. of Shunt. Specif.: vb. n. (a) (Railroads) Switching; as, shunting engine, yard, etc. [ British ] (b) (Finance) Arbitrage conducted between certain local markets without the necessity of the exchange involved in foreign arbitrage. [ Great Britain ] [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

. (Mach.) A valve permitting a fluid under pressure an easier avenue of escape than normally; specif., a valve, actuated by the governor, used in one system of marine-engine governing to connect both ends of the low-pressure cylinder as a supplementary control. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]