shift
Noun · VerbOpen English WordNet
Verb (13)shifts, shifted, shifting
- make a shift in or exchange of“First Joe led; then we switched”Synonyms: switchchange overMore general change, alterMore specific veer, back, switch up
- change place or direction“Shift one's position”Synonyms: dislodgerepositionMore general move, displaceMore specific beat down
- move around“transfer the packet from his trouser pockets to a pocket in his jacket”Synonyms: transferMore general move, displaceMore specific remove, carry over, shunt, shuffle, carry, transship, transpose, bunker, translocate
- move very slightly“He shifted in his seat”Synonyms: stirbudgeagitateMore general move
- move from one setting or context to another“shift the emphasis”“shift one's attention”More general change, alterMore specific transfer, transpose
- change in quality“His tone shifted”More general change
- move and exchange for another“shift the date for our class reunion”
- move sideways or in an unsteady way“The ship careened out of control”Synonyms: careenwobbletilt
- move abruptly“The ship suddenly lurched to the left”Synonyms: lurchpitch
- use a shift key on a keyboard“She could not shift so all her letters are written in lower case”
- change phonetically as part of a systematic historical change“Grimm showed how the consonants shifted”
- change gears“you have to shift when you go down a steep hill”
- lay aside, abandon, or leave for another“switch to a different brand of beer”“She switched psychiatrists”“The car changed lanes”Synonyms: switchchange
Noun (10)shifts
- an event in which something is displaced without rotationSynonyms: displacementType of translationKinds amplitude, luxation
- a qualitative changeSynonyms: transformationtransmutationType of change, alterationKinds improvement, conversion, population shift, weakening, degeneration, pyrolysis, strengthening, sea change, sublimation, tin pest
- the time period during which you are at workSynonyms: work shiftduty periodType of hoursKinds watch, go, trick, split shift, day shift, night shift, evening shiftPart of workday, working day
- the act of changing one thing or position for another“his switch on abortion cost him the election”Synonyms: switchswitchingType of changeKinds switcheroo
- the act of moving from one place to another“his constant shifting disrupted the class”Synonyms: shiftingType of motion, movement
- (geology) a crack in the earth's crust resulting from the displacement of one side with respect to the other“they built it right over a geological fault”“he studied the faulting of the earth's crust”Synonyms: faultfaultinggeological faultfracturebreakType of crack, cleftKinds strike-slip fault, inclined faultExamples San Andreas Fault, Denali FaultParts fault line
- a crew of workers who work for a specific period of time
- the key on the typewriter keyboard that shifts from lower-case letters to upper-case lettersSynonyms: shift key
- a woman's sleeveless undergarmentSynonyms: chemiseshimmyslipteddy
- a loose-fitting dress hanging straight from the shoulders without a waistSynonyms: chemisesack
What does it mean? Question 1 of today’s quiz
Translations
Noun change of workers
- Spanish
- turno
- French
- équipe
- German
- Schicht
- Italian
- turno
- Portuguese
- turno
- Turkish
- vardiya
- Russian
- сме́на sména
- Arabic
- نَوْبَة nawba
- Chinese
- 班 bān
- Dutch
- ploegendienst
19 more languages
Noun act of shifting
- Spanish
- cambio
- French
- décalage
- German
- Verschiebung
- Italian
- mutamento
- Russian
- сдвиг sdvig
- Chinese
- 转变 zhuǎnbiàn
- Polish
- przesunięcie
- Hungarian
- váltás
- Albanian
- zhvendosje
- Czech
- posun
The main translation for each meaning, from the langtolang.com multilingual dictionary. Each word links to its full entry there.
Webster's Dictionary (1913)
Origin: OE. shiften, schiften, to divide, change, remove. AS. sciftan to divide; akin to LG. & D. schiften to divide, distinguish, part Icel. skipta to divide, to part, to shift, to change, Dan skifte, Sw. skifta, and probably to Icel. skīfa to cut into slices, as n., a slice, and to E. shive, sheave, n., shiver, n.
1. To divide; to distribute; to apportion. obsolete
To which God of his bounty would shift Crowns two of flowers well smelling.— Geoffrey Chaucer
2. To change the place of; to move or remove from one place to another; as, to shift a burden from one shoulder to another; to shift the blame.
Hastily he schifte him[self].— Vision of Piers Plowman
Pare saffron between the two St. Mary's days, Or set or go shift it that knowest the ways.— Thomas Tusser
3. To change the position of; to alter the bearings of; to turn; as, to shift the helm or sails.
Carrying the oar loose, [they] shift it hither and thither at pleasure.— Sir Walter Raleigh
4. To exchange for another of the same class; to remove and to put some similar thing in its place; to change; as, to shift the clothes; to shift the scenes.
I would advise you to shift a shirt.— William Shakespeare
5. To change the clothing of; — used reflexively. obsolete
As it were to ride day and night; and... not to have patience to shift me.— William Shakespeare
6. To put off or out of the way by some expedient. “I shifted him away.” William Shakespeare
To shift off, to delay; to defer; to put off; to lay aside. — To shift the scene, to change the locality or the surroundings, as in a play or a story.
Shift the scene for half an hour; Time and place are in thy power.— Jonathan Swift
1. To divide; to distribute. obsolete
Some this, some that, as that him liketh shift.— Geoffrey Chaucer
2. To make a change or changes; to change position; to move; to veer; to substitute one thing for another; — used in the various senses of the transitive verb.
The sixth age shifts Into the lean and slippered pantaloon.— William Shakespeare
Here the Baillie shifted and fidgeted about in his seat.— Sir Walter Scott
3. To resort to expedients for accomplishing a purpose; to contrive; to manage.
Men in distress will look to themselves, and leave their companions to shift as well as they can.— Sir Roger L'Estrange
4. To practice indirect or evasive methods.
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
5. Nautical To slip to one side of a ship, so as to destroy the equilibrum; — said of ballast or cargo; as, the cargo shifted.
Origin: Cf. Icel. skipti. See Shift, transitive verb
1. The act of shifting. Specifically: (a) The act of putting one thing in the place of another, or of changing the place of a thing; change; substitution.
My going to Oxford was not merely for shift of air.— Sir Henry Wotton
(b) A turning from one thing to another; hence, an expedient tried in difficulty; often, an evasion; a trick; a fraud. “Reduced to pitiable shifts.” Thomas Babington Macaulay
I 'll find a thousand shifts to get away.— William Shakespeare
Little souls on little shifts rely.— John Dryden
2. Something frequently shifted; especially, a woman's under-garment; a chemise.
3. The change of one set of workmen for another; hence, a spell, or turn, of work; also, a set of workmen who work in turn with other sets; as, a night shift.
4. In building, the extent, or arrangement, of the overlapping of plank, brick, stones, etc., that are placed in courses so as to break joints.
5. Mining A breaking off and dislocation of a seam; a fault.
6. Music A change of the position of the hand on the finger board, in playing the violin.
To make shift, to contrive or manage in an exigency. “I shall make shift to go without him.” William Shakespeare
[They] made a shift to keep their own in Ireland.— John Milton
Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913), from GCIDE 0.54
Free On-line Dictionary of Computing
Scalable Heterogeneous Integrated Facility Testbed. A parallel processing project at CERN.