Word: shift Part of Speech: noun 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. Pronunciation: /ˈʃɪft/, [ˈʃʰɪft] 1. A movement to do something, a beginning. Labels: countable, uncountable 2. An act of shifting; a slight movement or change. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: There was a shift in the political atmosphere. Example: c. 1620-1626, Henry Wotton, letter to Nicholas Pey My going to Oxford was not merely for shift of air. 3. A share, a portion assigned on division. Labels: countable, obsolete, uncountable 4. A type of women's undergarment of dress length worn under dresses or skirts, a slip or chemise. Labels: countable, historical, uncountable Example: Just last week she bought a new shift at the market. Example: No; without a gown, in a shift that was somewhat of the coarsest, and none of the cleanest, bedewed likewise with some odoriferous effluvia, the produce of the day's labour, with a pitchfork in her hand, Molly Seagrim approached. 5. A simple straight-hanging, loose-fitting dress. Labels: countable, uncountable 6. A change of workers, now specifically a set group of workers or period of working time. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: We'll work three shifts a day till the job's done. Example: Work commenced at 2.30 p.m. on Saturday and continued without break until 4 a.m. on Monday morning, in the course of which three shifts of upwards of 90 men each and three steam cranes were employed. 7. The gear mechanism in a motor vehicle. Labels: US, countable, uncountable Example: Does it come with a stick-shift? 8. Alternative letter-case form of Shift (“a modifier button of computer keyboards”). Labels: alt-of, countable, uncountable Example: If you press shift-P, the preview display will change. 9. A control code or character used to change between different character sets. Labels: countable, uncountable 10. A control code or character used to change between different character sets. Labels: countable, uncountable 11. A bit shift. Labels: countable, uncountable 12. An infield shift. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: Teams often use a shift against this lefty. 13. The act of kissing passionately. Labels: Ireland, often, uncountable, usually Example: She flicked her hair out of her eyes again and looked into yours as you put your hands on her waist. Then her tongue was in your mouth and yours was in hers. You were getting the shift. Ye were shifting. Example: [If] I went on dates with these two [alcohols], right, you're a deep meaningful conversation with this one, … but this one? A shift and a finger and maybe you'd go home, do you know what I mean? 14. A contrivance, a device to try when other methods fail. Labels: archaic, countable, uncountable Example: If I get down, and do not break my limbs, I'll find a thousand shifts to get away: As good to die and go, as die and stay. 15. A trick, an artifice. Labels: archaic, countable, uncountable Example: And if the boy have not a woman's gift To rain a shower of commanded tears, An onion will do well for such a shift Example: Reduced to pitiable shifts. 16. The extent, or arrangement, of the overlapping of plank, brick, stones, etc., that are placed in courses so as to break joints. Labels: countable, uncountable 17. A breaking off and dislocation of a seam; a fault. Labels: countable, uncountable 18. A mutation in which the DNA or RNA from two different sources (such as viruses or bacteria) combine. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: This kind of change, called shift - or more memorably, 'viral sex' - tends to trigger a pandemic, because a radically different virus demands a radically different immune response, and that takes time to mobilise. 19. In violin-playing, any position of the left hand except that nearest the nut. Labels: countable, uncountable 20. A period of time in which one's consciousness resides in another reality, usually achieved through meditation or other means. Labels: countable, uncountable 21. be done; ruined Labels: British, countable, slang, uncountable