Definition of "shafting" [shaft•ing]

• A system of shafts, as in a mechanical device, for transmitting motion or power. (noun)
• Material from which shafts are made. (noun)
• Slang An instance of harsh or unfair treatment: got a shafting when they bought that house. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "There was no choice as there was nothing else available, and while I admit to toying with the idea of shafting one of the lieutenants or captains with my halfway machine and taking his, I couldn't quite see that."
• "The electorate know that the tories and libdems are the same, and look at both as one party who is "shafting" the working class."
• "In British Low Culture, Leon Hunt notes from that special,Sandra Shulman, author of Daughter sic of Satan 'Their beautiful bodies belonged to the devil–A novel in the tradition of Rosemary's Baby' and The Degenerates wrote orgy scenes as 'a shopping list of perversions' and claims not to have known what 'shafting' or 'going down' meant."