Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A small rounded piece of cork or rubber with a conical crown of feathers or plastic, used in badminton. Also called bird, birdie.
- v. To throw or send back and forth like a shuttlecock.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A piece of cork, or of similar light material, in one end of which feathers are stuck, made to be struck by a battledore in play; also, the play or game. See phrase below.
- n. A malvaceous shrub, Periptera punicea of Mexico, the only species of a still dubious genus. It has crimson flowers and a many-celled radiate capsule, one or other suggesting the name.
- To throw or bandy backward and forward like a shuttlecock.
Wiktionary
- n. badminton A lightweight object that is conical in shape with a cork or rubber-covered nose, used in badminton the way a ball is used in other racquet games.
- v. To move rapidly back and forth
- v. To send or toss back and forth; to bandy
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A cork stuck with feathers, which is to be struck by a battledoor in play; also, the play itself.
- v. To send or toss to and fro; to bandy.
WordNet 3.0
- n. badminton equipment consisting of a ball of cork or rubber with a crown of feathers
- v. send or toss to and fro, like a shuttlecock
Etymologies
- shuttle (from the back-and-forth sense of the word originating with loom weaving) + cock (from resemblance to a male bird's plume of tail feathers). Attested from 1522. (Wiktionary)
Examples
“Every one promised, as it were, to be a battle-dore if I would be the other, and the shuttlecock was to be our letters, — egad!”
“The shuttlecock is a cork in which feathers have been inserted.”
“Upon its return to earth, the spacecraft transforms from an airplane-like shape to a "shuttlecock," wafting down through the atmosphere yet not overheating.”
“I could understand that my father was disapproved of by them, and that I was a kind of shuttlecock flying between two battledores; but why they pitied me I could not understand.”
“Even the bonnet with the eagle's feather, which Sir Walter Scott induced Kemble to substitute for his "shuttlecock" headdress of ostrich plumes, was held to be inadmissible: the Macbeth of the antiquaries wore a conical iron helmet, and was otherwise arrayed in barbaric armour.”
A Book of the Play Studies and Illustrations of Histrionic Story, Life, and Character
“It'll give you an excuse to say "shuttlecock" without feeling silly.”
“The "shuttlecock" configuration is for sub-orbital speeds, not orbital speeds.”
“You cannot use the Space Ship one "shuttlecock" configuration for this slowing down because there is no atmosphere in space.”
“Something like a "shuttlecock" reentry for Space Ship One but for orbital speeds?”
“The "shuttlecock" configuration is used only (in) the atmosphere; remember Space Ship One only”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘shuttlecock’.
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SPOR - Olympic glossary
hurdle, tempo, consortium, caption, mutual understanding, jury, radio, javelin, extra time, boxing, Lander, European and 521 more...
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Words that sound dirty but aren't.
When you want to be pedantic AND childish.
titular, masticate, condiment, titmouse, penal, formication, social intercourse, assassination, cacophony, lucubrate, rectify, banal and 131 more...
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Playthings and Toys
have fun!
battledore, beanbag, bicycle, Big Wheel, crayons, boomerang, cap gun, doll, kite, jigsaw puzzle, hula hoop, jack-in-the-box and 66 more...
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Open and Shut
open, shut, open and shut, can opener, shut up, shutter, opening, shut-in, open door, open sesame, open-and-shut, shutoff and 47 more...
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Fun Words
Words that are fun to say....
gobbledygook, jings, crivens, hullabaloo, wheech, brouhaha, pizzazz, harum-scarum, namby-pamby, pussyfoot, frippery, pitter-patter and 333 more...
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Not Quite As Awful As They Sound
masticate, absquatulate, adumbrate, afflatus, fetial, anile, bilabial, cineaste, smew, copse, piebald, testudinate and 156 more...
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bearfax december 2006
opulent, spot, kaffee, sift, cedar, pushy, buckwheat, zydeco, chemeketa, hood, blood, food and 107 more...
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Words next
patrimony, cacophony, fearsome, coruscating, coruscating, coruscating, dolomite, dolorous, transdermal, chatty cathy, chatterbox, incessantly and 249 more...
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rememberers
prolix, ageusia, animadversion, anodyne, antic, arabesque, beadle, brachymetropia, colophon, desquamation, diaphoresis, diegesis and 3248 more...
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Sounds like a naughty word...
Words that sound like you're saying something bad!!!
usufruct, puissant, afflatus, masticate, niggard, ballcock, flaccid, shittah, hortatory, cockchafer, titular, cunctation and 7 more...
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silly words with sensible meanings
spelunking, lollygag, piebald, windjammer, sideburns, barlafumble, lampoon, battledore, shuttlecock, dragoon, gerrymandering, woggle and 1 more...
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Words that sound dirty, but aren't
Inspired by a Candid Camera sketch.
horehound, fugue, ramrod, jocular, thespian, titmouse, masticate, pussyfoot, angina, booby, formicate, hoar and 64 more...
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The No-No List
Words I absolutely will not say aloud to people unless I'm sure they know exactly what I'm talking about. Also words that require great diligence in pronunciation, so no one is offended by a slight...
sects, norfolk, dam, niggardly, shih tzu, push it, gaze, retardant, seaman, penal, cummin, frigate and 42 more...
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eiriks's list
shuttlecock, logophile, oxymoron, skuddårsnatt, ephemeral, flabbergasted, mindboggled, übermensch
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pmcg2323's Words
plethora, floetry, virtualization, exuberant, shuttlecock, mumble, significant, quiesce, fraught, conflagration
Tweets
Looking for tweets for shuttlecock.

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Jul 18, 2010
tbtabby How do they expect us to fight a war without shuttlecocks?! May 26, 2009