shift

A movement to do something, a beginning.

Noun

  1. A movement to do something, a beginning.
  2. An act of shifting; a slight movement or change.
    • There was a shift in the political atmosphere.
    • 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...
  3. A share, a portion assigned on division.
  4. A 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.
    • 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...
    • 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...
  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.
    • We'll work three shifts a day till the job's done.
    • 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 5, “New...

    Synonyms: workshift turn of duty

  7. The gear mechanism in a motor vehicle.
    • Does it come with a stick-shift?
  8. Alternative spelling of Shift (“a modifier button of computer keyboards”).
    • If you press shift-P, the preview display will change.
  9. 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. A bit shift.
  11. An infield shift.
    • Teams often use a shift against this lefty.
  12. The act of kissing passionately.
    • 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...
    • [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,...

Origin

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.

Forms

shifts

Hyponyms

antigenic shift blueshift day shift graveyard shift locking shift make shift night shift redshift split shift swing shift wind shift

Derived

airshift allylic shift autoshift backshift Bezold-Brücke shift blueshift blue shift chain shift chemical shift chloride shift continental shift coshift dative shift Doppler shift downshift field shift first shift foreshift frameshift frequency shift keying frequency-shift keying gear shift hoot owl shift hot shift

Verb

  1. To move from one place to another; to redistribute.
    • 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...
    • 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...

    Synonyms: relocate transfer budge interchange move rearrange redistribute shift stir travel

  2. To change in form or character; switch.
    • 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:

    Synonyms: interchange swap commute counterchange exchange replace shift substitute switch transpose convert develop draw evolve metamorphize metamorphose reconvert transfigurate transfigure transform transmogrify transmute transume

  3. To change position; to move.
    • 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.

    Synonyms: reposition

  4. To change residence; to leave and live elsewhere.
    • We are shifting to America next month.

    Synonyms: move relocate

  5. To 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 […]. - , II.ii.2
  6. To 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...
    • 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]...
  7. To change gears (in an automobile).
    • I crested the hill and shifted into fifth.
  8. To move the keys of a typewriter over in order to type capital letters or special characters.
  9. To switch to a character entry mode for capital letters or special characters.
  10. 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.

    Antonyms: unshift

  11. To remove (the first value from an array).
  12. To dispose of, remove.
    • How can I shift a grass stain?

    Synonyms: get rid of remove junk 86 bin can cast aside cast off cast away chuck chuck away chuck out discard dispose of ditch dump jettison pitch scrap shift throw aside throw away throw out toss

Forms

shifts shifting shifted

Related

arsed bothered

Derived

autoshift backshift blameshift downshift ever-shifting evershifting frameshifted misshift nonshifted nymshift placeshift powershift preshift preshifted rankshift reshift shiftable shift about shiftage shiftee shifter shift gears shift ground shifting baseline syndrome