shift
Part of speech: verb
Morphological type: simple
Topics: computing
engineering
entertainment
lifestyle
mathematics
music
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
video-games
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.
Inflected forms:
form: shifts
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: shifting
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: shifted
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: shifted
pos: verb
tags: past
Senses:
gloss: To move from one place to another; to redistribute.
pos: verb
tags: figuratively
sometimes
transitive
examples: We'll have to shift these boxes to the downtown office.
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.
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.
gloss: To change in form or character; switch.
pos: verb
tags: ergative
figuratively
examples: As a result, I shifted my approach to focus on group-generated activities and broadened the chronological time frame.
His voice shifted from song to whisper.
gloss: To change position; to move.
pos: verb
tags: figuratively
intransitive
reflexive
sometimes
examples: She shifted slightly in her seat.
His political stance shifted daily.
We were hoping he could shift himself to take care of the problem, but he couldn't be shifted.
A maverick is an unbranded calf that has been weaned and shifts for itself.
gloss: To change residence; to leave and live elsewhere.
pos: verb
tags: India
intransitive
examples: We are shifting to America next month.
gloss: To change (clothes, especially underwear); to change the clothes of.
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
transitive
examples: '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 […].
gloss: To change (someone's) clothes; sometimes specifically, to change underwear.
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
reflexive
transitive
examples: As it were, to ride day and night; and […] not to have patience to shift me.
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 […].
gloss: To change gears (in an automobile).
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: I crested the hill and shifted into fifth.
gloss: To move the keys of a typewriter over in order to type capital letters or special characters.
pos: verb
gloss: To switch to a character entry mode for capital letters or special characters.
pos: verb
gloss: To manipulate a binary number by moving all of its digits left or right; compare rotate.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: Shifting 1001 to the left yields 10010; shifting it right yields 100.
gloss: To remove (the first value from an array).
pos: verb
tags: transitive
gloss: To dispose of, remove.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: How can I shift a grass stain?
gloss: To hurry; to move quickly.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: If you shift, you might make the 2:19.
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.
gloss: To engage in sexual petting with.
pos: verb
tags: Ireland
slang
transitive
vulgar
examples: 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?
gloss: To resort to expedients for accomplishing a purpose; to cope, get by, manage, make do.
pos: verb
tags: archaic
intransitive
examples: […] men in distress will look to themselves in the First Place, and leave their Companions to Shift as well as they can.
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.
gloss: To practice indirect or evasive methods; to contrive.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: 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.
gloss: In violin-playing, to move the left hand from its original position next to the nut.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
gloss: To use meditation or other means to change the reality that one's consciousness resides in.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: I finally shifted to Hogwarts last night!
gloss: To steal or kidnap.
pos: verb
tags: Nigeria
slang
gloss: To crouch in game, especially if the shift key is pressed to initiate crouching.
pos: verb
Derived words: autoshift
backshift
downshift
powershift
rankshift
supershift
timeshift
undershift
upshift
blameshift
ever-shifting
evershifting
frameshifted
misshift
nonshifted
nymshift
placeshift
preshift
preshifted
reshift
shiftable
shift about
shiftage
shiftee
shifter
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
transshift
unshift
unshifted
Translations:
lang: Bulgarian
word: сменям
roman: smenjam
lang: Bulgarian
word: променям
roman: promenjam
lang: Chinese Mandarin
word: 转变
roman: zhuǎnbiàn
lang: Finnish
word: muuttaa
lang: French
word: échanger
lang: French
word: permuter
lang: French
word: switcher
lang: Indonesian
word: berubah
lang: Italian
word: scambiare
lang: Italian
word: permutare
lang: Italian
word: barattare
lang: Portuguese
word: mudar
lang: Portuguese
word: trocar
lang: Russian
word: меня́ть
roman: menjátʹ
lang: Russian
word: поменя́ть
roman: pomenjátʹ
lang: Russian
word: изменя́ть
roman: izmenjátʹ
lang: Russian
word: измени́ть
roman: izmenítʹ
lang: Spanish
word: cambiar
lang: Spanish
word: conmutar
lang: Spanish
word: transmudar
lang: Swedish
word: byta
lang: Swedish
word: skifta
lang: Swedish
word: ändra
lang: Swedish
word: växla
lang: Telugu
word: మార్చు
roman: mārcu
lang: Vietnamese
word: thay đổi
lang: Vietnamese
word: thay
lang: Vietnamese
word: đổi