shift

plural shifts

1. countableuncountableA movement to do something, a beginning.
2. countableuncountableAn act of shifting; a slight movement or change.

   There was a shift in the political atmosphere.

   2 more examples

   c. 1620-1626, Henry Wotton, letter to Nicholas Pey My going to Oxford was not merely for shift of air.

   The generational shift Mr. Obama once embodied is, in fact, well under way, but it will not change Washington as quickly — or as harmoniously — as a lot of voters once hoped.

   2012 November 7, Matt Bai, “Winning a Second Term, Obama Will Confront Familiar Headwinds”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 03 Jun 2020

3. countableobsoleteuncountableA share, a portion assigned on division.
4. countablehistoricaluncountableA type of women's undergarment of dress length worn under dresses or skirts, a slip or chemise.

   Just last week she bought a new shift at the market.

   3 more examples

   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.

   1749, Henry Fielding, chapter X, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, book V

   At length, one night, when the company by some accident broke up much sooner than ordinary, so that the candles were not half burnt out, she was not able to resist the temptation, but resolved to have them some way or other. Accordingly, as soon as the hurry was over, and the servants, as she thought, all gone to sleep, she stole out of her bed, and went down stairs, naked to her shift as she was, with a design to steal them […]

   1762, Charles Johnstone, The Reverie; or, A Flight to the Paradise of Fools, volume 2, Dublin: Printed by Dillon Chamberlaine, →OCLC, page 202

   Some wear black shifts and flesh-coloured stockings; some with curly hair, dyed yellow, are dressed like little girls in short muslin frocks.

   1919, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, “chapter 47”, in The Moon and Sixpence, [New York, N.Y.]: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers […], →OCLC

5. countableuncountableA simple straight-hanging, loose-fitting dress.

   As part of our antirock stance, Julie and I wore matching housewife-y shifts and Pro Keds and sweated it out in the ninety-plus-degree heat.

   2015, Kim Gordon, chapter 37, in Carrie Thornton, editor, Girl in a Band, New York: Dey st., →ISBN, page 207

6. countableuncountableA change of workers, now specifically a set group of workers or period of working time.

   We'll work three shifts a day till the job's done.

   1 more 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.

   1958 June 28, “New Track Layout and Marshalling Yard at Barking”, in Railway Magazine, page 428

   Synonyms: workshift, turn of duty

7. UScountableuncountableThe gear mechanism in a motor vehicle.

   Does it come with a stick-shift?

8. countableuncountableAlternative letter-case form of Shift (“a modifier button of computer keyboards”).

   If you press shift-P, the preview display will change.

9. countableuncountablecomputingA control code or character used to change between different character sets.
   1. countableuncountablecomputingAn instance of the use of such a code or character.
10. countableuncountablecomputingA bit shift.
11. countableuncountableball gamesAn infield shift.

    Teams often use a shift against this lefty.

12. Irelandoftenuncountableusuallycrude slangThe act of kissing passionately.

    [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?

    2024 December 16, Dermot Ward, in "Irish People Try Cheap Vs Expensive Alcohol 3&t=16m" (c. 16 minutes in), The TRY Channel

    1 more 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.

    2023, Colin Walsh, Kala

13. archaiccountableuncountableA contrivance, a device to try when other methods fail.

    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.

    c. 1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals)

14. archaiccountableuncountableA trick, an artifice.

    Reduced to pitiable shifts.

    1856 February, [Thomas Babington] Macaulay, “Oliver Goldsmith”, in T[homas] F[lower] E[llis], editor, The Miscellaneous Writings and Speeches of Lord Macaulay, new edition, London: Longman, Green, Reader, & Dyer, published 1871, →OCLC

    3 more examples

    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

    c. 1590–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals)

    I'll find a thousand shifts to get away.

    c. 1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iii]

    Little souls on little shifts rely.

    1687, [John Dryden], “(please specify the page number)”, in The Hind and the Panther. A Poem, in Three Parts, 2nd edition, London: […] Jacob Tonson […], →OCLC

15. countableuncountablebusinessThe extent, or arrangement, of the overlapping of plank, brick, stones, etc., that are placed in courses so as to break joints.
16. countableuncountablebusinessA breaking off and dislocation of a seam; a fault.
17. countableuncountablebiologyA mutation in which the DNA or RNA from two different sources (such as viruses or bacteria) combine.

    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.

    2017, Laura Spinney, Pale Rider: The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How it Changed the World, →ISBN

18. countableuncountableentertainmentIn violin-playing, any position of the left hand except that nearest the nut.
19. countableuncountableA period of time in which one's consciousness resides in another reality, usually achieved through meditation or other means.
20. Britishcountableslanguncountablebe done; ruined

present singular third person shifts · participle present shifting · participle past shifted · past shifted

1. figurativelysometimestransitiveTo move from one place to another; to redistribute.

   We'll have to shift these boxes to the downtown office.

   2 more examples

   By shifting the longitude problem to the scientific community, they stifled public criticism of their inability to solve the problem. […] 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.

   2012 March 28, William E. Carter, Merri Sue Carter, “The British Longitude Act Reconsidered”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 2, page 87

   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.

   2013 June 22, “T time”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8841, archived from the original on 10 Aug 2013, page 68

   Synonyms: relocate, transfer, budge, interchange, move, rearrange, redistribute, relocate

2. ergativefigurativelyTo change in form or character; switch.

   His voice shifted from song to whisper.

   2013, Steven H. Knoblauch, The Musical Edge of Therapeutic Dialogue

   1 more example

   As a result, I shifted my approach to focus on group-generated activities and broadened the chronological time frame.

   2008, June Granatir Alexander, Ethnic Pride, American Patriotism, page ix

   Synonyms: interchange, swap, commute, counterchange, exchange, interchange, replace, substitute

3. figurativelyintransitivereflexivesometimesTo change position; to move.

   She shifted slightly in her seat.

   3 more examples

   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.

   1914 January, Zane Grey, The Light of Western Stars: A Romance, New York, N.Y.; London: Harper & Brothers Publishers, →OCLC, page 59

   Synonyms: reposition

4. IndiaintransitiveTo change residence; to leave and live elsewhere.

   We are shifting to America next month.

   Synonyms: move, relocate

5. obsoletetransitiveTo change (clothes, especially underwear); to change the clothes of.

   '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[…].

   1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition 2, section 2, member 2

6. obsoletereflexivetransitiveTo change (someone's) clothes; sometimes specifically, to change underwear.

   As it were, to ride day and night; and […] not to have patience to shift me.

   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]

   1 more example

   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 […].

   1751, [Tobias] Smollett, chapter 21, in The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle […], volume I, London: Harrison and Co., […], →OCLC

7. intransitiveTo change gears (in an automobile).

   I crested the hill and shifted into fifth.

8. typewritersTo move the keys of a typewriter over in order to type capital letters or special characters.
9. computer keyboardsTo switch to a character entry mode for capital letters or special characters.
10. transitivecomputingTo manipulate a binary number by moving all of its digits left or right; compare rotate.

    Shifting 1001 to the left yields 10010; shifting it right yields 100.

    Antonyms: unshift

11. transitivecomputingTo remove (the first value from an array).
12. transitiveTo dispose of, remove.

    How can I shift a grass stain?

    Synonyms: get rid of, remove, junk, 86, bin, can, cast aside, cast off

13. intransitiveTo hurry; to move quickly.

    If you shift, you might make the 2:19.

    1 more example

    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.

    2020 December 2, Paul Bigland, “My weirdest and wackiest Rover yet”, in Rail, page 68

    Synonyms: hasten, rush, fly, scramble, get a move on, hasten, haul, hurtle

14. IrelandslangtransitivevulgarTo engage in sexual petting with.

    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?

    2018, Sally Rooney, “Two Days Later (April 2011)”, in Normal People

    Synonyms: fondle, grope, canoodle, caress, chuckle, coax, cosset, dally

15. archaicintransitiveTo resort to expedients for accomplishing a purpose; to cope, get by, manage, make do.

    You need to learn to shift for yourself.

    2 more examples

    […] men in distress will look to themselves in the First Place, and leave their Companions to Shift as well as they can.

    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

    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.

    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

16. intransitiveTo practice indirect or evasive methods; to contrive.

    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.

    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

17. intransitiveentertainmentIn violin-playing, to move the left hand from its original position next to the nut.
18. intransitiveTo use meditation or other means to change the reality that one's consciousness resides in.

    I finally shifted to Hogwarts last night!

19. NigeriaslangTo steal or kidnap.
20. video gamesTo crouch in-game, especially if the shift key is pressed to initiate crouching; often used as a social cue in Minecraft to convey friendliness, gratitude, or good faith.

plural Shifts · alternative shift

1. computingA modifier key whose main function is shifting between two or more functions of any of certain other keys (usually by pressing Shift and the other button simultaneously).

   Synonyms: shift key