shunt

/ʃənt/

/ʃənt/

Other forms: shunted; shunting; shunts

A shunt is a small tube that goes inside the body to drain fluid. It also means to divert in a general way, like if you shunt the thought of tubes in your body, you think about rainbows and kittens instead.

Although shunt usually refers to a tube that drains blood or other fluid out of a part of the body, shunt also means to bypass. If a train is shunted, it’s diverted from the main track onto a side track. The word may have come from shun, as in “turn away,” which is what a shunt essentially does. It turns something away from where it was headed.

Definitions of shunt

1. noun

   a conductor having low resistance in parallel with another device to divert a fraction of the current
   synonyms: bypass, electrical shunt

   type of:

   conductor

   a device designed to transmit electricity, heat, etc.
2. noun

   a passage by which a bodily fluid (especially blood) is diverted from one channel to another
   “an arteriovenus shunt”

   types:

   bypass

   a surgically created shunt (usually around a damaged part)

   portacaval shunt

   shunt that is created surgically between the portal vein and the inferior vena cava so that blood from the abdominal organs can bypass the liver

   type of:

   passage, passageway

   a path or channel or duct through or along which something may pass
3. noun

   implant consisting of a tube made of plastic or rubber; for draining fluids within the body
   type of:

   implant

   a prosthesis placed permanently in tissue
4. verb

   transfer to another track, of trains
   type of:

   shift, transfer

   move around
5. verb

   provide with or divert by means of an electrical shunt
   type of:

   deviate

   cause to turn away from a previous or expected course