What's the difference between shaft and spear?

Shaft


Definition:

  • (n.) The slender, smooth stem of an arrow; hence, an arrow.
  • (n.) The long handle of a spear or similar weapon; hence, the weapon itself; (Fig.) anything regarded as a shaft to be thrown or darted; as, shafts of light.
  • (n.) That which resembles in some degree the stem or handle of an arrow or a spear; a long, slender part, especially when cylindrical.
  • (n.) The trunk, stem, or stalk of a plant.
  • (n.) The stem or midrib of a feather.
  • (n.) The pole, or tongue, of a vehicle; also, a thill.
  • (n.) The part of a candlestick which supports its branches.
  • (n.) The handle or helve of certain tools, instruments, etc., as a hammer, a whip, etc.
  • (n.) A pole, especially a Maypole.
  • (n.) The body of a column; the cylindrical pillar between the capital and base (see Illust. of Column). Also, the part of a chimney above the roof. Also, the spire of a steeple.
  • (n.) A column, an obelisk, or other spire-shaped or columnar monument.
  • (n.) A rod at the end of a heddle.
  • (n.) A solid or hollow cylinder or bar, having one or more journals on which it rests and revolves, and intended to carry one or more wheels or other revolving parts and to transmit power or motion; as, the shaft of a steam engine.
  • (n.) A humming bird (Thaumastura cora) having two of the tail feathers next to the middle ones very long in the male; -- called also cora humming bird.
  • (n.) A well-like excavation in the earth, perpendicular or nearly so, made for reaching and raising ore, for raising water, etc.
  • (n.) A long passage for the admission or outlet of air; an air shaft.
  • (n.) The chamber of a blast furnace.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) By means of computed tomography (CT) values related to bone density and mass were assessed in the femoral head, neck, trochanter, shaft, and condyles.
  • (2) In contrast, the ryanodine receptor is observed in dendritic shafts, but not in the spines.
  • (3) Five cases of mycetoma of bone involving patella, shaft of tibia, medial malleolus, calcaneum and phalanx of great toe are presented.
  • (4) Since 1984, 16 children (mean age 10.3 years) have had stabilization of their femoral shaft fractures by external fixation (Monofixateur) in the Trauma Department of the Hannover Medical School.
  • (5) The fractures were localized as follows: 7 in the proximal, 7 in the middle, 1 in the distal third of the shaft, 5 subtrochanteric, 1 supracondylar.
  • (6) Normal neck-shaft angle accounted to 53.1% in the traction group.
  • (7) Operative treatment was used 22 times (5 sesamoid fractures, 5 midtibial fractures, 5 metatarsal V base fractures, 3 tarsal navicular fractures, 3 olecranon fractures, and 1 proximal tibial shaft fracture).
  • (8) Twenty-five patients with aseptic nonunion of the humeral shaft, treated by a combined therapeutic procedure, are reported.
  • (9) The tanycyte shafts extended from the floor of the fourth ventricle into the bundle, and often ran the entire length of the bundle, where they intertwined themselves among neurons and dendrites of the medullary raphe nuclei.
  • (10) We successfully applied it in the treatment of eight fractures of the shafts of the femur or tibia which would not unite because of infection, soft tissue interposition or gross incongruity of fragments.
  • (11) The tibial shafts of OVX rats compared to SHAM controls showed elevated periosteal mineral apposition rate and endocortical bone formation parameters.
  • (12) Mid-shaft sections of 100% silicone (Bardex) and hydrogel-coated latex (Biocath) catheters were subjected to controlled in vitro encrustation conditions for periods of up to 18 weeks.
  • (13) The filaments are tightly joined together along their shafts for about 30 nm but they separate at both ends for about 10 nm before contacting the external surface of the plasma membrane.
  • (14) In the original exchange, Scudamore warned Nick West, a City lawyer who works with the Premier League on broadcasting deals, to keep a female colleague they nicknamed Edna “off your shaft”.
  • (15) The sequential examination of the hair shaft allows an assessment of the chloroquine amount taken over time, the individual dosage, the initiation and termination of therapy.
  • (16) The long axis of the femoral shaft was, however, not shown to be a source of substantial error.
  • (17) In the good old days the judges looked the other way when radicals were shafted, shocking bail conditions imposed and foreigners unceremoniously thrown out.
  • (18) We therefore performed an investigation to find whether application of bone cement to the femur caused histamine release in elective hip surgery, and, independently of this, also investigated whether premedication with H1- + H2-antagonists had any effect on the cardiovascular reactions due to bone cement implantation into the femoral shaft in elderly patients with hip fracture.
  • (19) Of the 21 cement-free shaft implantations, 3 had to be replaced, the average age of these patients being 42.9 years.
  • (20) As compared to the mean values of normal gravity controls, centrifuged dogs showed no differences in femur length; cross-sectional area, outer and inner radii at mid-shaft of the femur; dry weights of the biceps femoris, quadriceps femoris, and gastrocnemius muscles.

Spear


Definition:

  • (n.) A long, pointed weapon, used in war and hunting, by thrusting or throwing; a weapon with a long shaft and a sharp head or blade; a lance.
  • (n.) Fig.: A spearman.
  • (n.) A sharp-pointed instrument with barbs, used for stabbing fish and other animals.
  • (n.) A shoot, as of grass; a spire.
  • (n.) The feather of a horse. See Feather, n., 4.
  • (n.) The rod to which the bucket, or plunger, of a pump is attached; a pump rod.
  • (v. t.) To pierce with a spear; to kill with a spear; as, to spear a fish.
  • (v. i.) To shoot into a long stem, as some plants. See Spire.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) The work, The Spear, by Brett Murray, unleashed a brouhaha that has hogged headlines for more than a week in South Africa and earned that inexhaustible accolade "painting-gate".
  • (2) To find out if any stone tips were being used on spears any earlier than that, Wilkins examined sharp stones found at a site called Kathu Pan, in the Northern Cape region of South Africa.
  • (3) If they refuse to do so, make the least show of resistance, or attempt to run away from you, you will fire upon and compell [sic] them to surrender, breaking and destroying the Spears, Clubs, and Waddies of all those you take prisoner.
  • (4) will.i.am feat britney spears - Scream & Shout on MUZU.TV .
  • (5) The spear-phishing tricks we saw the Chinese secret police using against the Dalai Lama in 2008 were being used by Russian crooks to steal money from US companies by 2010.
  • (6) The wealth magazine Spear’s noted, in an interview with a company that provides contract cleaners to the Dorchester, that a cleaner at the Park Lane hotel would have to work for 56 hours to be able to take an entry-level room for the night , before tax.
  • (7) Manipulation of intra abdominal embedded spears may require unusual surgical procedures, and no attempt to extract the weapon should be made before emergency laparotomy is carried out.
  • (8) López and Machado were defeated by Capriles in opposition primaries, but they rejected Capriles's willingness to enter into dialogue with Maduro on public safety following the murder in January of Mónica Spear, a former Miss Venezuela .
  • (9) Hemicellulose B and holocellulose from spear grass (Heteropogon contortus) were the best sources of carbon, and the optimum temperature was 27 degrees.
  • (10) Spears joked that she was “thrilled” at being added to the dating app.
  • (11) To evaluate these hypotheses, the nucleotide sequence of the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit II gene was determined from a bushbaby (Galago senegalensis), flying lemur (Cynocephalus variegatus), tree shrew (Tupaia glis), spear-nosed bat (Phyllostomus hastatus), rousette bat (Rousettus leschenaulti), and nine-banded armadillo (Dasypus novemcinctus) and was compared with published sequences of a human, cow, and mouse.
  • (12) Jesus' death was ensured by the thrust of a soldier's spear into his side.
  • (13) What an incredible contrast between the passionate compassion so emotively expressed in Britain and the ruthless bloodlust in Japan, where tens of thousands of dolphins are killed with spears on beaches every year and where crowds cheer the departure of a huge mechanised fleet whose objective is the mass slaughter of these majestic mammals in the Antarctic whale sanctuary.
  • (14) Spectra were obtained with synchrotron radiation from the SPEAR storage ring using highly sensitive fluorescence detectors.
  • (15) Twenty four hours of food and maternal deprivation, shown previously to increase brain serotonin and 5-hydroxyindole acetic acid and their ratio in neonates (L. P. Spear & F. M. Scalzo, 1984, Developmental Brain Research, in press) was observed to induce tail flick analgesia, an effect blocked by metergoline.
  • (16) Adult male hunters who used dogs and carried only one spear were injured most frequently.
  • (17) I try not to read my reviews, but there's always some friend who'll come along and, under the guise of trying to comfort you, let you know that you've been speared.
  • (18) This tusk specimen contains a metal spear with a wooden component, which is surrounded by a quiver-like osseous encasement.
  • (19) Facebook Twitter Pinterest Armed with a makeshift spear, an Assam man sets out to chase away the elephant that crushed a woman to death in the village of Galighat.
  • (20) By the 16th century the conduction of sound by a rod or the staff of a spear was reported by a number of writers; however, these writers considered these phenomena as a curiosity rather than having practical value.