Definition of "shift"

shift

/ʃɪft/

noun
countable and uncountable, plural shifts
1. A movement to do something, a beginning.
2. An act of shifting; a slight movement or change.
  Quotations
  My going to Oxford was not merely for shift of air.
  c. 1620-1626, Henry Wotton, letter to Nicholas Pey
  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 New York Times‎
3. (obsolete) A share, a portion assigned on division.
4. (historical) A type of women's undergarment of dress length worn under dresses or skirts, a slip or chemise.
  Quotations
  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, volumes (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], 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, 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 […]
5. A simple straight-hanging, loose-fitting dress.
6. A change of workers, now specifically a set group of workers or period of working time.
7. (US) The gear mechanism in a motor vehicle.
8. Alternative spelling of Shift (“a modifier button of computer keyboards”).
9. (computing) A control code or character used to change between different character sets.
  1. (computing) An instance of the use of such a code or character.
10. (computing) A bit shift.
11. (baseball) An infield shift.
12. (Ireland, crude slang, often with the definite article, usually uncountable) The act of kissing passionately.
13. (archaic) A contrivance, a device to try when other methods fail.
  Quotations
  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, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals)
14. (archaic) A trick, an artifice.
  Quotations
  And if the boy have not a woman's giftTo 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, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals)
  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
  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, [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 […]
15. (construction) The extent, or arrangement, of the overlapping of plank, brick, stones, etc., that are placed in courses so as to break joints.
16. (mining) A breaking off and dislocation of a seam; a fault.
17. (genetics) A mutation in which the DNA or RNA from two different sources (such as viruses or bacteria) combine.
  Quotations
  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
18. (music) In violin-playing, any position of the left hand except that nearest the nut.
19. A period of time in which one's consciousness resides in another reality, usually achieved through meditation or other means.
20. (British slang) be done; ruined
verb
third-person singular simple present shifts, present participle shifting, simple past and past participle shifted
1. (transitive, sometimes figurative) To move from one place to another; to redistribute.
  Quotations
  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, 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, page 68
2. (transitive, intransitive, figurative) To change in form or character; switch.
  Quotations
  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
  His voice shifted from song to whisper.
  2013, Steven H. Knoblauch, The Musical Edge of Therapeutic Dialogue
3. (intransitive) To change position.
4. (intransitive, India) To change residence; to leave and live elsewhere.
5. (obsolete, transitive) To change (clothes, especially underwear).
  Quotations
  '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: Printed by John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps
6. (obsolete, transitive, reflexive) To change (someone's) clothes; sometimes specifically, to change underwear.
  Quotations
  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, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act V, scene v]
  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., […]
7. (intransitive) To change gears (in a car).
8. (typewriters) To move the keys of a typewriter over in order to type capital letters and special characters.
9. (computer keyboards) To switch to a character entry mode for capital letters and special characters.
10. (transitive, computing) To manipulate a binary number by moving all of its digits left or right; compare rotate.
11. (transitive, computing) To remove the first value from an array.
12. (transitive) To dispose of.
13. (intransitive) To hurry; to move quickly.
  Quotations
  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
14. (Ireland, vulgar, slang) To engage in sexual petting.
  Quotations
  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
15. (archaic) To resort to expedients for accomplishing a purpose; to contrive; to manage.
  Quotations
  […] men in distress will look to themselves in the First Place, and leave their Companions to Shift as well as they can.check it out online
  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, […], 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. To practice indirect or evasive methods.
  Quotations
  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, […], 1st book, §. section 7, page 45
17. (music) In violin-playing, to move the left hand from its original position next to the nut.
18. To change the reality one's consciousness resides in through meditation or other means.
19. (Nigeria, slang) To steal or kidnap.

Definition of "shift"

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