shift
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English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From Middle English schiften, from Old English sciftan (“to divide, separate into shares; appoint, ordain; arrange, organise”), from Proto-Germanic *skiftijaną, *skiptijaną, for earlier *skipatjaną (“to organise, put in order”), from Proto-Indo-European *skeyb- (“to separate, divide, part”), from Proto-Indo-European *skēy- (“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”).
Pronunciation[edit]
Verb[edit]
shift (third-person singular simple present shifts, present participle shifting, simple past and past participle shifted)
- (transitive) To change, swap.
- 2012 March 1, William E. Carter, Merri Sue Carter, “The British Longitude Act Reconsidered”, American Scientist, volume 100, number 2, page 87:
- 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.
- His political stance shifted daily.
- 2012 March 1, William E. Carter, Merri Sue Carter, “The British Longitude Act Reconsidered”, American Scientist, volume 100, number 2, page 87:
- (transitive) To move from one place to another; to redistribute.
- We'll have to shift these boxes to the downtown office.
- (intransitive) To change position.
- She shifted slightly in her seat.
- (obsolete, transitive) To change (one's clothes); also to change (someone's) underclothes.
- 1621, Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy, II.ii.2:
- '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 [...].
- 1621, Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy, II.ii.2:
- (intransitive) To change gears (in a car).
- I crested the hill and shifted into fifth.
- (transitive, computing) To 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.
- (transitive, computing) To remove the first value from an array.
- (transitive) To dispose of.
- How can I shift a grass stain?
- (intransitive) To hurry.
- If you shift, you might make the 2:19.
- (Ireland, vulgar, slang) To engage in sexual petting.
- To resort to expedients for accomplishing a purpose; to contrive; to manage.
- L'Estrange
- Men in distress will look to themselves, and leave their companions to shift as well as they can.
- L'Estrange
- To practice indirect or evasive methods.
- Sir Walter Raleigh
- All those schoolmen, though they were exceeding witty, yet better teach all their followers to shift, than to resolve by their distinctions.
- Sir Walter Raleigh
Translations[edit]
Noun[edit]
shift (plural shifts)
- (historical) a type of women's undergarment, a slip
- Just last week she bought a new shift at the market.
- 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, Book V, chapter x
- 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.
- 1919, W. Somerset Maugham, The Moon and Sixpence, chapter 47
- Some wear black shifts and flesh-coloured stockings; some with curly hair, dyed yellow, are dressed like little girls in short muslin frocks.
- a 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.
- an act of shifting; a slight movement or change
- Sir H. Wotton
- My going to Oxford was not merely for shift of air.
- There was a shift in the political atmosphere.
- 2012 November 7, Matt Bai, “Winning a Second Term, Obama Will Confront Familiar Headwinds”, New York Times:
- 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.
- Sir H. Wotton
- (US) the gear mechanism in a motor vehicle
- Does it come with a stick-shift?
- Alternative spelling of Shift (“the modifier button of computer keyboards”).
- If you press shift-P, the preview display will change.
- (computing) a bit shift
- (baseball) The infield shift.
- Teams often use the shift against this lefty.
- (Ireland, crude slang, often with the definite article, usually uncountable) The act of sexual petting.
- (archaic) A contrivance, device to try when other methods fail
- 1596, Shakespeare, History of King John
- 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.
- 1596, Shakespeare, History of King John
- (archaic) a trick, an artifice
- 1593, Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew
- 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
- Macaulay
- Reduced to pitiable shifts.
- Shakespeare
- I'll find a thousand shifts to get away.
- Dryden
- Little souls on little shifts rely.
- 1593, Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew
- In building, the extent, or arrangement, of the overlapping of plank, brick, stones, etc., that are placed in courses so as to break joints.
- (mining) A breaking off and dislocation of a seam; a fault.
Derived terms[edit]
- blueshift
- day shift
- graveyard shift
- make shift
- night shift
- preshift
- shift break
- shiftwork, shift work
- split shift
- swing shift
- stickshift
- redshift
- (French kissing): get the shift
Translations[edit]
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- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms derived from Old English
- English terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English verbs
- English terms with obsolete senses
- en:Computing
- Irish English
- English vulgarities
- English slang
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English historical terms
- American English
- English alternative forms
- en:Baseball
- English uncountable nouns
- English archaic terms
- en:Mining
- English ergative verbs
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- en:Underwear