Dropshaft

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A vertical shaft which objects can drop through.

    "Melas said that district engineers had located Deep Tunnel dropshafts that were near a portion of the freight tunnels and that they would drill, cut or blast through to the flooded areas "as soon as possible.""

Example

More examples

"Melas said that district engineers had located Deep Tunnel dropshafts that were near a portion of the freight tunnels and that they would drill, cut or blast through to the flooded areas "as soon as possible.""

Etymology

Compound of drop + shaft.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.