Definition of "shuttlecock" [shut•tle•cock]

• A small rounded piece of cork or rubber with a conical crown of feathers or plastic, used in badminton. Also called bird, birdie. (noun)
• To throw or send back and forth like a shuttlecock. (verb-transitive)

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.

• "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."