shift - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

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.

shift (countable and uncountable, plural shifts)

  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.
    • 2012 November 7, Matt Bai, “Winning a Second Term, Obama Will Confront Familiar Headwinds”, in New York Times‎[1]:
      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.
  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.
    Just last week she bought a new shift at the market.
    • 1749, Henry Fielding, chapter X, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, book V:
      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.
    • 1762, Charles Johnstone, The Reverie; or, A Flight to the Paradise of Fools‎[2], volume 2, Dublin: Printed by Dillon Chamberlaine, →OCLC, page 202:
      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 […]
  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.
    Synonyms: workshift, turn of duty
    We'll work three shifts a day till the job's done.
    • 1958 June, “New Track Layout and Marshalling Yard at Barking”, in Railway Magazine, page 428:
      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.
  7. (US) 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. (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.
    Teams often use a shift against this lefty.
  12. (Ireland, crude slang, often with the definite article, usually uncountable) The act of kissing passionately.
  1. (archaic) A contrivance, a device to try when other methods fail.
  1. (archaic) A trick, an artifice.
  1. (construction) The extent, or arrangement, of the overlapping of plank, brick, stones, etc., that are placed in courses so as to break joints.
  2. (mining) A breaking off and dislocation of a seam; a fault.
  3. (genetics) A mutation in which the DNA or RNA from two different sources (such as viruses or bacteria) combine.
  1. (music) In violin-playing, any position of the left hand except that nearest the nut.
  2. A period of time in which one's consciousness resides in another reality, usually achieved through meditation or other means.
  3. (British slang) be done; ruined

type of women's undergarment — see slip

change of workers

act of shifting — see also swap

gear mechanism in a motor vehicle

button on a keyboard

shift (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.
    Synonyms: relocate, transfer; see also Thesaurus:move
    We'll have to shift these boxes to the downtown office.
    • 2012 March, William E. Carter, Merri Sue Carter, “The British Longitude Act Reconsidered”, in 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.
    • 2013 June 22, “T time”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8841, page 68:
      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.
  2. (ergative, figurative) To change in form or character; switch.
    Synonyms: interchange, swap; see also Thesaurus:switch, Thesaurus:convert
    • 2008, June Granatir Alexander, Ethnic Pride, American Patriotism, page ix:
      As a result, I shifted my approach to focus on group-generated activities and broadened the chronological time frame.
    • 2013, Steven H. Knoblauch, The Musical Edge of Therapeutic Dialogue:
      His voice shifted from song to whisper.
  3. (intransitive, sometimes reflexive and figurative) To change position; to move.
    Synonym: reposition
    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.
  4. (intransitive, India) To change residence; to leave and live elsewhere.
    Synonyms: move, relocate
    We are shifting to America next month.
  5. (obsolete, transitive) To change (clothes, especially underwear); to change the clothes of.
    • , 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 […].
  6. (obsolete, transitive, reflexive) To change (someone's) clothes; sometimes specifically, to change underwear.
  7. (intransitive) To change gears (in an automobile).
    I crested the hill and shifted into fifth.
  8. (typewriters) To move the keys of a typewriter over in order to type capital letters or special characters.
  9. (computer keyboards) To switch to a character entry mode for capital letters or special characters.
  10. (transitive, computing) To manipulate a binary number by moving all of its digits left or right; compare rotate.
    Antonym: unshift
    Shifting 1001 to the left yields 10010; shifting it right yields 100.
  11. (transitive, computing) To remove (the first value from an array).
  12. (transitive) To dispose of, remove.
    Synonyms: get rid of, remove; see also Thesaurus:junk
    How can I shift a grass stain?
  13. (intransitive) To hurry; to move quickly.
    Synonyms: hasten, rush; see also Thesaurus:rush
    If you shift, you might make the 2:19.
  1. (Ireland, vulgar, slang, transitive) To engage in sexual petting with.
    Synonyms: fondle, grope; see also Thesaurus:fondle
  1. (archaic, intransitive) To resort to expedients for accomplishing a purpose; to cope, get by, manage, make do.
  1. (intransitive) To practice indirect or evasive methods; to contrive.
  1. (intransitive, music) In violin-playing, to move the left hand from its original position next to the nut.
  2. (intransitive) To use meditation or other means to change the reality that one's consciousness resides in.
    I finally shifted to Hogwarts last night!
  3. (Nigeria, slang) To steal or kidnap.
  4. (Minecraft, video games) To crouch in game, especially if the shift key is pressed to initiate crouching.

to change, swap — see also swap

to move from one place to another — see also switch,‎ toggle

to change position

to change gears

From English shift.

shift m (plural shifts, diminutive shiftje n)

  1. shift (people working in turn)
    Synonym: ploeg
  2. shift (button on a keyboard)
  3. shift (the act of shifting)
    Synonym: verschuiving

Borrowed from English shift.

shift m (plural shifts)

  1. shift (people working in turn)

shift m (plural shifts)

  1. shift (button on a keyboard)