air shaft

air well.

Mining. a ventilating shaft.

Origin of air shaft

First recorded in 1685–95

Mr Trotman went down the air-shaft communicating with the other boilers.

Man on the Ocean |R.M. Ballantyne
Then there was a man across the air-shaft who practised on the clarinet, and a professional singer up-stairs.

Dwellers in Arcady |Albert Bigelow Paine
Inside the big cylinder was a second smaller one, like an air-shaft, five feet in diameter.

The Boy With the U. S. Life-Savers |Francis Rolt-Wheeler
From the granitoid square at the base of the air-shaft came the rattle of after-dinner dishes and the babble of dialect.

Just Around the Corner |Fannie Hurst

You remember that I told you there was an air-shaft in the middle of the caisson?

The Boy With the U. S. Life-Savers |Francis Rolt-Wheeler

air shaft

a shaft for ventilation, esp in a mine or tunnel