shift
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: enpr: shĭft
ipa: /ʃɪft/
rhymes: -ɪft
Forms: form: shifts
form: shifting
form: shifted
form: shifted
Etymology: The noun is from Middle English schyft, shyffte. Cognate with German Schicht (“layer, shift”).
The verb is from Middle English schiften, from Old English sċiftan (“to divide, separate into shares; appoint, ordain; arrange, organise”), from Proto-Germanic *skiftijaną, *skiptijaną, from earlier *skipatjaną (“to organise, put in order”), from Proto-Indo-European *skeyb- (“to separate, divide, part”), from Proto-Indo-European *skey- (“to cut, divide, separate, part”). Cognate with Scots schift, skift (“to shift”), West Frisian skifte, skiftsje (“to sort”), Dutch schiften (“to sort, screen, winnow, part”), German schichten (“to stack, layer”), Swedish skifta (“to shift, change, exchange, vary”), Norwegian skifte (“to shift”), Icelandic skipta (“to switch”). See ship.
Senses: examples: text: We'll have to shift these boxes to the downtown office.
text: But was it responsible governance to pass the Longitude Act without other efforts to protect British seamen? Or might it have been subterfuge—a disingenuous attempt to shift attention away from the realities of their life at sea.
ref: 2012 March 24, William E. Carter, Merri Sue Carter, “The British Longitude Act Reconsidered”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 2, page 87:
text: The ability to shift profits to low-tax countries by locating intellectual property in them, which is then licensed to related businesses in high-tax countries, is often assumed to be the preserve of high-tech companies. […] current tax rules make it easy for all sorts of firms to generate […] “stateless income”: profit subject to tax in a jurisdiction that is neither the location of the factors of production that generate the income nor where the parent firm is domiciled.
ref: 2013 June 22, “T time”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8841, page 68:
glosses: To move from one place to another; to redistribute.
examples: text: As a result, I shifted my approach to focus on group-generated activities and broadened the chronological time frame.
ref: 2008, June Granatir Alexander, Ethnic Pride, American Patriotism, page ix:
text: His voice shifted from song to whisper.
ref: 2013, Steven H. Knoblauch, The Musical Edge of Therapeutic Dialogue:
glosses: To change in form or character; switch.
examples: text: She shifted slightly in her seat.
text: His political stance shifted daily.
text: We were hoping he could shift himself to take care of the problem, but he couldn't be shifted.
glosses: To change position; to move.
examples: text: We are shifting to America next month.
synonyms: move
relocate
glosses: To change residence; to leave and live elsewhere.
examples: text: 'Tis very good to wash his hands and face often, to shift his clothes, to have fair linen about him, to be decently and comely attired […].
ref: , II.ii.2
glosses: To change (clothes, especially underwear); to change the clothes of.
examples: text: As it were, to ride day and night; and […] not to have patience to shift me.
ref: c. 1596–1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, […]. Epilogue.”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene v]:
text: The first thing he did was to secure a convenient lodging at the inn where he dined; then he shifted himself, and according to the direction he had received, went to the house of Mrs. Gauntlet […].
ref: 1751, [Tobias] Smollett, chapter 21, in The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle […], volume I, London: Harrison and Co., […], →OCLC:
glosses: To change (someone's) clothes; sometimes specifically, to change underwear.
examples: text: I crested the hill and shifted into fifth.
glosses: To change gears (in an automobile).
qualifier: typewriters
glosses: To move the keys of a typewriter over in order to type capital letters or special characters.
qualifier: computer keyboards
glosses: To switch to a character entry mode for capital letters or special characters.
examples: text: Shifting 1001 to the left yields 10010; shifting it right yields 100.
topics: computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
glosses: To manipulate a binary number by moving all of its digits left or right; compare rotate.
topics: computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
glosses: To remove (the first value from an array).
examples: text: How can I shift a grass stain?
glosses: To dispose of, remove.
examples: text: If you shift, you might make the 2:19.
text: Time is running out, so I renounce a spin on a Class 387 for a fast run to Paddington on another Class 800 - a shame as the weather was perfect for pictures. Even so, it's enjoyable - boy, can those trains shift under the wires.
ref: 2020 December 2, Paul Bigland, “My weirdest and wackiest Rover yet”, in Rail, page 68:
glosses: To hurry; to move quickly.
examples: text: The question is what she's done to Waldron, said Eric. Look at him hiding in his locker there. Come on, spit it out. Did you shift her?
ref: 2018, Sally Rooney, “Two Days Later (April 2011)”, in Normal People:
glosses: To engage in sexual petting with.
examples: text: […] men in distress will look to themselves in the First Place, and leave their Companions to Shift as well as they can.
ref: 1692, Roger L’Estrange, “[The Fables of Æsop, &c.] Fab[le] Fable 83, Reflexion. (please specify the name of the fable.)”, in Fables, of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists: […], London: […] R[ichard] Sare, […], →OCLC, page 81:
text: My Fellow-Slaves were […] as courteous to me as I could well-expect; and as they had Plantations of their own, they gave me […] such Victuals as they had; especially on dark Nights, and at such Times as I could not shift for myself.
ref: 1743, Robert Drury, The Pleasant, and Surprizing Adventures of Mr. Robert Drury, during his Fifteen Years Captivity on the Island of Madagascar, London, page 112:
glosses: To resort to expedients for accomplishing a purpose; to cope, get by, manage, make do.
examples: text: But this I dare auow of all those Schoole-men, that though they were exceeding wittie, yet they better teach all their Followers to shift, then to resolue, by their distinctions.
ref: 1614, Walter Ralegh [i.e., Walter Raleigh], chapter 3, in The Historie of the World […], London: […] William Stansby for Walter Burre, […], →OCLC, 1st book, §. section 7, page 45:
glosses: To practice indirect or evasive methods; to contrive.
topics: entertainment
lifestyle
music
glosses: In violin-playing, to move the left hand from its original position next to the nut.
examples: text: I finally shifted to Hogwarts last night!
glosses: To use meditation or other means to change the reality that one's consciousness resides in.
glosses: To steal or kidnap.
topics: video-games
glosses: To crouch in game, especially if the shift key is pressed to initiate crouching.
Synonyms: sense: to change, swap
word: interchange
word: swap
sense: to move from one place to another
word: relocate
word: transfer
sense: to change position
word: reposition
sense: to dispose of
word: get rid of
word: remove
sense: to hurry
word: hasten
word: rush
sense: to engage in sexual petting with
word: fondle
word: grope
word: fondle
Derived terms: ever-shifting
evershifting
preshift
shift about
shift gears
shift ground
shifting baseline syndrome
shift off
shift one's ground
shift one's tides
shift the cut
shift the deckchairs on the Titanic
shift the dial
shift the goalposts
unshift
Related terms: sense: move [oneself]
word: arsed
sense: move [oneself]
word: bothered