shift
to put (something) aside and replace it by another or others; change or exchange: to shift friends;to shift ideas.
to transfer from one place, position, person, etc., to another: to shift the blame onto someone else.
Automotive. to change (gears) from one ratio or arrangement to another.
Linguistics. to change in a systematic way, especially phonetically.
to move from one place, position, direction, etc., to another.
to manage to get along or succeed by oneself.
to get along by indirect methods; use any expediency, trick, or evasion to get along or succeed: He shifted through life.
to change gears in driving an automobile.
Linguistics. to undergo a systematic, especially phonetic, change.
to press a shift key, as on a typewriter keyboard.
Archaic. to change one's clothes.
a change or transfer from one place, position, direction, person, etc., to another: a shift in the wind.
a person's scheduled period of work, especially the portion of the day scheduled as a day's work when a shop, service, office, or industry operates continuously during both the day and night: She prefers the morning shift.
a group of workers scheduled to work during such a period: The night shift reported.
Baseball. a notable repositioning by several fielders to the left or the right of their normal playing position, an occasional strategy against batters who usually hit the ball to the same side of the field.
Automotive. a gearshift.
Clothing.
a straight, loose-fitting dress worn with or without a belt.
a woman's chemise or slip.
Football. a lateral or backward movement from one position to another, usually by two or more offensive players just before the ball is put into play.
Mining. a dislocation of a seam or stratum; fault.
Music. a change in the position of the left hand on the fingerboard in playing a stringed instrument.
Linguistics.
a change or system of parallel changes that affects the sound structure of a language, as the series of related changes in the English vowel system from Middle English to Modern English.
a change in the meaning or use of a word.: Compare functional shift.
an expedient; ingenious device.
an evasion, artifice, or trick.
change or substitution.
Bridge. shift bid.
Agriculture. (in crop rotation)
any of successive crops.
the tract of land used.
an act or instance of using the shift key, as on a typewriter keyboard.
Idioms about shift
shift gears. gear (def. 19).
Origin of shift
1Other words for shift
Other words from shift
- shift·ing·ly, adverb
- shift·ing·ness, noun
- in·ter·shift·ing, adjective
- re·shift, verb
- trans·shift, verb
- un·shift·ing, adjective
Words that may be confused with shift
- shift , shrift
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use shift in a sentence
She had been, he says, the backbone of their family and losing her shifted their entire emotional landscape.
Everyone at This Dinner Party Has Lost Someone | Samantha Levine | January 6, 2015 | THE DAILY BEASTSo, the one and only good thing that came out of it is that it really shifted the conversation.
Anna Kendrick on Feminism, #GamerGate, and the Celebrity Hacking Attack | Marlow Stern | November 25, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTThe new report is consistent with a great deal of research that has not yet shifted public thinking about alcohol problems.
Americans Drink Too Much, But We’re Not All Alcoholics | Gabrielle Glaser | November 25, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTI shifted and put the casing in my pocket, and when I did, I felt a quickening from my stomach to my jaw.
Udall shifted his emphasis to the economy in the last weeks of the campaign, but it was too late.
Then, inexplicably, he shifted to the other side that the old, the normal Tom presented generously to the new.
The Wave | Algernon BlackwoodHe shifted uneasily, while his handkerchief was kept busy mopping the perspiration from his brow.
The Homesteader | Oscar MicheauxWhen I shifted my position, he turned the other way quick, and coughed–that pore little gone-in cough of hisn.
Alec Lloyd, Cowpuncher | Eleanor GatesThose subject to what are termed wolfy notes can be remedied or the bad notes shifted to less important ones.
Violins and Violin Makers | Joseph PearceThe chauffeur shifted his position so as to glance behind him at the girls, the car running slowly.
The Campfire Girls of Roselawn | Margaret Penrose
British Dictionary definitions for shift
/ (ʃɪft) /
to move or cause to move from one place or position to another
(tr) to change for another or others
to change (gear) in a motor vehicle
(intr) (of a sound or set of sounds) to alter in a systematic way
(intr) to provide for one's needs (esp in the phrase shift for oneself)
(intr) to proceed by indirect or evasive methods
to remove or be removed, esp with difficulty: no detergent can shift these stains
(intr) slang to move quickly
(tr) computing to move (bits held in a store location) to the left or right
the act or an instance of shifting
a group of workers who work for a specific period
the period of time worked by such a group
an expedient, contrivance, or artifice
the displacement of rocks, esp layers or seams in mining, at a geological fault
an underskirt or dress with little shaping
Origin of shift
1Derived forms of shift
- shifter, noun
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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