To shunt means to push or move something aside, usually to get it out of the way or redirect it somewhere else. When a train engineer shunts railroad cars, they're moving them from one track to another to organize them or make room. In a busy hospital, doctors might shunt a less urgent patient to a different area so they can focus on an emergency.

The word often suggests moving something deliberately but not necessarily gently. If you're trying to concentrate on homework and keep getting interrupted, you might feel like your attention is being shunted from one distraction to another. In electronics, a shunt redirects electrical current away from the main path, like a detour for electrons.

Sometimes people use shunt when they feel pushed aside or ignored. A student might feel shunted aside if their teacher keeps overlooking their raised hand to call on others. The word carries a sense of being redirected, sometimes fairly and sometimes not, like a package that gets shunted to the wrong delivery truck.