in the manufactures, an instrument used by the weavers, which guides the thread it contains, either of woollen, silk, flax, or other matter, so as to make it form the woofs of stuffs, cloths, linens, ribbands, &c. by throwing the shuttle alternately from left to right, and from right to left, across between the threads of the warp, which are stretched out lengthwise on the loom.

In the middle of the shuttle is a kind of cavity, called the eye or chamber of the shuttle; wherein is inclosed the spool, which is a part of the thread destined for the woof; and this is wound on a little tube of paper, rush, or other matter.

The ribband-weaver's shuttle is very different from that of most other weavers, though it serves for the same purpose: it is of box, fix or seven inches long, one broad, and as much deep; slod with iron at both ends, which terminate in points, and are a little crooked, the one towards the right, and the other towards the left, representing the figure of an os horizontally placed. See WEAVING.