Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The object hit back and forth over the net in badminton, consisting of a conical array of feathers or a conical plastic mesh attached to a small rounded end of cork or rubber.
  • intransitive verb To throw or send back and forth like a shuttlecock.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun 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.
  • noun 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.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To send or toss to and fro; to bandy.
  • noun A cork stuck with feathers, which is to be struck by a battledoor in play; also, the play itself.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun 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.
  • verb To move rapidly back and forth
  • verb To send or toss back and forth; to bandy

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun badminton equipment consisting of a ball of cork or rubber with a crown of feathers
  • verb send or toss to and fro, like a shuttlecock

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

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.

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Examples

Comments

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  • How do they expect us to fight a war without shuttlecocks?!

    May 26, 2009

  • July 19, 2010