shuffle
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈʃʌfəl/
rhymes: -ʌfəl
Forms: form: shuffles
form: shuffling
form: shuffled
form: shuffled
Etymology: Originally the same word as scuffle, and properly a frequentative of shove.
Senses: examples: text: Don't forget to shuffle the cards.
text: You shuffle, and I'll deal.
text: The data packets are shuffled before transmission.
text: I'm going to shuffle all the songs in my playlist.
glosses: To put in a random order.
examples: text: But, rather than make a change up front, Hughes shuffled his defence for this match, replacing Carlos Salcido with Baird, in a move which few would have predicted would prove decisive.
ref: 2010 December 28, Marc Vesty, “Stoke 0 – 2 Fulham”, in BBC Sport:
glosses: To change; modify the order of something.
examples: text: He shuffled out of the room.
text: I shuffled my feet in embarrassment.
text: [T]he aged creature came, / Shuffling along with ivory-headed wand, […]
ref: 1819, John Keats, “The Eve of St. Agnes”, in Lamia, Isabella, the Eve of St. Agnes, and Other Poems, London: […] [Thomas Davison] for Taylor and Hessey, […], published 1820, →OCLC, stanza XI, page 88:
text: Even when the other instruments were resting the pianist kept up his monotonous vamping, with a dreary furbelow for embellishment here and there, to which some few of the dancers continued to shuffle round the floor.
ref: 1954, Alexander Alderson, chapter 4, in The Subtle Minotaur:
text: The regular crowd shuffles in
ref: 1973, “Piano Man”, Billy Joel (music):
glosses: To move in a slovenly, dragging manner; to drag or scrape the feet in walking or dancing.
examples: text: I myself, […] hiding mine honour in my necessity, am fain to shuffle.
ref: c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merry Wiues of Windsor”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii]:
glosses: To change one's position; to shift ground; to evade questions; to resort to equivocation; to prevaricate.
examples: text: Your life, good master, / Must shuffle for itself.
ref: 1611 April (first recorded performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Cymbeline”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene v]:
glosses: To use arts or expedients; to make shift.
examples: text: to shuffle money from hand to hand
glosses: To shove one way and the other; to push from one to another.
examples: text: Therefore you do vvell to have recourſe to your laſt Evaſion, that it vvas contriv'd by your Enemies, and ſhuffled into the Papers that vvere ſeiz'd: vvhich yet you ſee the Nation is not ſo eaſy to believe as your ovvn Fury; […]
ref: 1682, [John Dryden], “Epistle to the Whigs”, in The Medall. A Satyre Against Sedition. […], Edinburgh: [s.n.], →OCLC:
glosses: To remove or introduce by artificial confusion.
Synonyms: sense: walk without picking up one's feet
word: shamble
Derived terms: bum shuffle
deshuffle
double-shuffle
reshuffle
shufflable
shuffleable
shuffleboard
shuffle off
shuffle off this mortal coil
shuffler
shuffle the cards
shuffle the chairs on the deck of the Titanic
shuffle the deckchairs on the Titanic
shuffle up
unshufflable
unshuffleable