shunt

1. push or pull (a train or part of a train) from the main line to a siding or from one line of rails to another.

   their train had been shunted into a siding

2. provide (an electrical current) with a conductor joining two points of a circuit, through which more or less of the current may be diverted.

   these components are designed to shunt electrical surges away from microcircuits

1. an act of pushing or shoving something.

   the engine turnround was helped by a gravity shunt

   the car would turn into a fireball when hit by even quite gentle shunts

2. an electrical conductor joining two points of a circuit, through which more or less of a current may be diverted.

Middle English (in the sense ‘move suddenly aside’): perhaps from shun.