shift

A movement to do something, a beginning.

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 Second Term, Obama Will Confront Familiar Headwinds”, in New York Times:

An act of shifting; a slight movement or change.

(obsolete) A share, a portion assigned on division.

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 approached.

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:

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, →OCLC, 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 […], →OCLC:

(historical) A type of women's undergarment of dress length worn under dresses or skirts, a slip or chemise.

A simple straight-hanging, loose-fitting dress.

We'll work three shifts a day till the job's done.

A change of workers, now specifically a set group of workers or period of working time.

Does it come with a stick-shift?

(US) The gear mechanism in a motor vehicle.

If you press shift-P, the preview display will change.

Alternative spelling of Shift (“a modifier button of computer keyboards”).

(computing) A control code or character used to change between different character sets.

(computing) An instance of the use of such a code or character.

Teams often use a shift against this lefty.

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.

[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, Dermot Ward, in "Irish People Try Cheap Vs Expensive Alcohol 3&t=16m" (c. 16 minutes in), The TRY Channel

(Ireland, crude slang, often with the definite article, usually uncountable) The act of kissing passionately.

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, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):

(archaic) A contrivance, a device to try when other methods fail.

And if the boy have not a woman's gift
To 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, →OCLC, (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, →OCLC:

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, →OCLC, [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 […], →OCLC:

(construction) The extent, or arrangement, of the overlapping of plank, brick, stones, etc., that are placed in courses so as to break joints.

(mining) A breaking off and dislocation of a seam; a fault.

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, →ISBN:

(genetics) A mutation in which the DNA or RNA from two different sources (such as viruses or bacteria) combine.

(music) In violin-playing, any position of the left hand except that nearest the nut.

A period of time in which one's consciousness resides in another reality, usually achieved through meditation or other means.

en-noun

shift (countable and uncountable, plural shifts)

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

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 life at sea.

2012 March 22, 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:

(transitive, sometimes figurative) To move from one place to another; to redistribute.

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:

(ergative, figurative) To change in form or character; switch.

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.

(intransitive, sometimes reflexive and figurative) To change position; to move.

We are shifting to America next month.

(intransitive, India) To change residence; to leave and live elsewhere.

'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 […].

(obsolete, transitive) To change (clothes, especially underwear); to change the clothes of.

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, →OCLC, [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., […], →OCLC:

(obsolete, transitive, reflexive) To change (someone's) clothes; sometimes specifically, to change underwear.

I crested the hill and shifted into fifth.

(intransitive) To change gears (in an automobile).

(typewriters) To move the keys of a typewriter over in order to type capital letters or special characters.

(computer keyboards) To switch to a character entry mode for capital letters or special characters.

Shifting 1001 to the left yields 10010; shifting it right yields 100.

(transitive, computing) To manipulate a binary number by moving all of its digits left or right; compare rotate.

(transitive, computing) To remove (the first value from an array).

How can I shift a grass stain?

If you shift, you might make the 2:19.

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:

(intransitive) To hurry; to move quickly.

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:

(Ireland, vulgar, slang, transitive) To engage in sexual petting with.

[…] men in distress will look to themselves in the First Place, and leave their Companions to Shift as well as they can.

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, […], →OCLC, 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:

(archaic, intransitive) To resort to expedients for accomplishing a purpose; to cope, get by, manage, make do.

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, […], →OCLC, 1st book, §. section 7, page 45:

(intransitive) To practice indirect or evasive methods; to contrive.

(intransitive, music) In violin-playing, to move the left hand from its original position next to the nut.

I finally shifted to Hogwarts last night!

(intransitive) To use meditation or other means to change the reality that one's consciousness resides in.

en-verb

shift (third-person singular simple present shifts, present participle shifting, simple past and past participle shifted)

shifts (present singular third-person)
shifting (participle present)
shifted (participle past)
shifted (past)