Shuttle

shuttle
    n 1: badminton equipment consisting of a ball of cork or rubber
         with a crown of feathers [syn: {shuttlecock}, {bird},
         {birdie}, {shuttle}]
    2: public transport that consists of a bus or train or airplane
       that plies back and forth between two points
    3: bobbin that passes the weft thread between the warp threads
    v 1: travel back and forth between two points
    

Shuttle \Shut"tle\, n. [Also shittle, OE. schitel, scytyl,
   schetyl; cf. OE. schitel a bolt of a door, AS. scyttes; all
   from AS. sce['o]tan to shoot; akin to Dan. skyttel, skytte,
   shuttle, dial. Sw. skyttel, sk["o]ttel. [root]159. See
   {Shoot}, and cf. {Shittle}, {Skittles}.]
   1. 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.
      [1913 Webster]

            Like shuttles through the loom, so swiftly glide
            My feathered hours.                   --Sandys.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. 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.
      [1913 Webster]

   3. A shutter, as for a channel for molten metal. [R.]
      [1913 Webster]

   {Shuttle box} (Weaving), a case at the end of a shuttle race,
      to receive the shuttle after it has passed the thread of
      the warp; also, one of a set of compartments containing
      shuttles with different colored threads, which are passed
      back and forth in a certain order, according to the
      pattern of the cloth woven.

   {Shutten race}, a sort of shelf in a loom, beneath the warp,
      along which the shuttle passes; a channel or guide along
      which the shuttle passes in a sewing machine.

   {Shuttle shell} (Zool.), any one of numerous species of
      marine gastropods of the genus {Volva}, or {Radius},
      having a smooth, spindle-shaped shell prolonged into a
      channel at each end.
      [1913 Webster]
    

Shuttle \Shut"tle\, v. i.
   To move backwards and forwards, like a shuttle.
   [1913 Webster]

         I had to fly far and wide, shutting athwart the big
         Babel, wherever his calls and pauses had to be.
                                                  --Carlyle.
   [1913 Webster]
    

79 Moby Thesaurus words for "shuttle":
      Amtrak, air transport, air travel, airfreight, alternate,
      back and fill, baggage train, battledore and shuttlecock,
      cable railroad, choo-choo, cog railroad, cog railway, come and go,
      commute, ebb and flow, el, electric, electric train, elevated,
      express, express train, flier, freight, freight train, freighter,
      funicular, goods train, hand loom, hitch and hike, interurban,
      knitting machine, lightning express, limited, local, loom, metro,
      metronome, milk train, monorail, oscillator, parliamentary,
      parliamentary train, pass and repass, passenger train, pendulum,
      rack-and-pinion railroad, railroad train, range, rattler,
      reciprocate, ride and tie, rocker, rocking chair, rocking stone,
      rolling stock, seesaw, shunt, shuttle service, shuttle train,
      shuttlecock, special, streamliner, subway, swing, teeter,
      teeter-totter, teeterboard, teetery-bender, to-and-fro, train,
      tube, underground, vibrator, wax and wane, way train, weaver,
      wibble-wabble, wigwag, zigzag