shuttlecock

noun

1. (countable)A lightweight object that is conical in shape with a cork or rubber-covered nose, used in badminton the way a ball is used in other racquet games.

   “In a severe gale like this, while the ship is but a tossed shuttlecock to the blast, it is by no means uncommon to see the needles in the compasses, at intervals, go round and round.”

   “The practice of the game in this country is to keep the shuttlecock in the air by striking it from one person to another.”

   “Crudely as they had calculated they were at first justified by the event; she was the little feathered shuttlecock they fiercely kept flying between them.”

2. (dated, uncountable)The game of badminton.

   “Fla[via]. Come, Sir Pergamus, till your horse come, you and I'll go play at shuttle-cock. / Per[gamus]. A match i'faith. I love that sport a' life. Yet my mother charged me not to use it for fear of putting my arm out of joint.”

   “Two people stand at opposite ends of the room, as in playing shuttlecock […]”

verb

1. To move rapidly back and forth.
2. To send or toss back and forth; to bandy.

   “to shuttlecock words”

   “if the phrase is to be shuttlecocked between us!”