shift

Etymology

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.

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. November 7, 2012, Matt Bai, “Winning a Second Term, Obama Will Confront Familiar Headwinds”, in New York Times
3. A share, a portion assigned on division. Obsolete.
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.
   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
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.
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.
13. (archaic) A contrivance, a device to try when other methods fail.
14. (archaic) A trick, an artifice.
    Little souls on little shifts rely. 1687, [John Dryden], The Hind and the Panther. A Poem, in Three Parts, 2nd edition, London: Printed for Jacob Tonson[…], →OCLC
15. (construction) The extent, or arrangement, of the overlapping of plank, brick, stones, etc., that are placed in courses so as to break joints.
16. (mining) A breaking off and dislocation of a seam; a fault.
17. (genetics) A mutation in which the DNA or RNA from two different sources (such as viruses or bacteria) combine.
    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
18. (music) In violin-playing, any position of the left hand except that nearest the nut.
19. A period of time in which one's consciousness resides in another reality, usually achieved through meditation or other means.

verb

1. (transitive, sometimes figurative) 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 life at sea. 2012-03, 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. 2013-06-22, “T time”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8841, page 68
2. (transitive, intransitive, figurative) 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
3. (intransitive) To change position.
   She shifted slightly in her seat.
   His political stance shifted daily.
4. (intransitive, India) To change residence; to leave and live elsewhere.
   We are shifting to America next month.
5. (obsolete, transitive) To change (clothes, especially underwear).
   '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. (obsolete, transitive, reflexive) To change (someone's) clothes; sometimes specifically, to change underwear.
7. (intransitive) To change gears (in a car).
   I crested the hill and shifted into fifth.
8. (typewriters) To move the keys of a typewriter over in order to type capital letters and special characters.
9. (computer keyboards) To switch to a character entry mode for capital letters and special characters.
10. (transitive, computing) 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.
11. (transitive, computing) To remove the first value from an array.
12. (transitive) To dispose of.
    How can I shift a grass stain?
13. (intransitive) To hurry; to move quickly.
    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. December 2 2020, Paul Bigland, “My weirdest and wackiest Rover yet”, in Rail, page 68
14. (Ireland, vulgar, slang) To engage in sexual petting.
    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
15. (archaic) To resort to expedients for accomplishing a purpose; to contrive; to manage.
    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
16. To practice indirect or evasive methods.
17. (music) In violin-playing, to move the left hand from its original position next to the nut.
18. To change the reality one's consciousness resides in through meditation or other means.
    I finally shifted to Hogwarts last night!