Shift
[ʃɪft]
Definition
(noun.) the act of moving from one place to another; 'his constant shifting disrupted the class'.
(noun.) an event in which something is displaced without rotation.
(noun.) a crew of workers who work for a specific period of time.
(noun.) the time period during which you are at work.
(verb.) move and exchange for another; 'shift the date for our class reunion'.
(verb.) move from one setting or context to another; 'shift the emphasis'; 'shift one's attention'.
(verb.) change in quality; 'His tone shifted'.
(verb.) use a shift key on a keyboard; 'She could not shift so all her letters are written in lower case'.
(verb.) change place or direction; 'Shift one's position'.
(verb.) change gears; 'you have to shift when you go down a steep hill' .
(verb.) change phonetically as part of a systematic historical change; 'Grimm showed how the consonants shifted'.
Typed by Humphrey--From WordNet
Definition
(v. t.) To divide; to distribute; to apportion.
(v. t.) To change the place of; to move or remove from one place to another; as, to shift a burden from one shoulder to another; to shift the blame.
(v. t.) To change the position of; to alter the bearings of; to turn; as, to shift the helm or sails.
(v. t.) To exchange for another of the same class; to remove and to put some similar thing in its place; to change; as, to shift the clothes; to shift the scenes.
(v. t.) To change the clothing of; -- used reflexively.
(v. t.) To put off or out of the way by some expedient.
(v. t.) The act of shifting.
(v. t.) The act of putting one thing in the place of another, or of changing the place of a thing; change; substitution.
(v. t.) Something frequently shifted; especially, a woman's under-garment; a chemise.
(v. t.) The change of one set of workmen for another; hence, a spell, or turn, of work; also, a set of workmen who work in turn with other sets; as, a night shift.
(v. t.) In building, the extent, or arrangement, of the overlapping of plank, brick, stones, etc., that are placed in courses so as to break joints.
(v. t.) A breaking off and dislocation of a seam; a fault.
(v. t.) A change of the position of the hand on the finger board, in playing the violin.
Checked by Benita
Synonyms and Synonymous
v. a. Change, alter, vary.
v. n. [1]. Move, change place, change about.[2]. Change, vary, veer, chop.[3]. Contrive, manage, plan, scheme, devise ways and means.
n. [1]. Change.[2]. Expedient, contrivance, resort, resource, means.[3]. Evasion, artifice, fraud, trick, doubling, stratagem, subterfuge, dodge, mask, ruse, wile, craft, device, artful contrivance.[4]. Chemise, smock.
Typist: Sam
Synonyms and Antonyms
SYN:Change, alter, transfer, shelve, displace, remove
ANT:Fix, fasten, locate, insert, pitch, plant, place
Edited by Bridget
Definition
v.t. to change in form or character: to put out of the way: to dress in fresh clothes.—v.i. to change about: to remove: to change one's clothes: to resort to expedients for some purpose: in violin-playing to move the left hand from its original position next to the nut.—n. a change: in violin-playing any position of the left hand except that nearest the nut: a squad or relay of men: a contrivance: an artifice: last resource: a chemise or woman's undermost garment (orig. signifying a change of body-linen).—adj. Shift′able capable of being shifted.—ns. Shift′er one who shifts: a trickster; Shift′iness the character of being shifty.—adj. Shift′ing unstable: shifty.—adv. Shift′ingly.—adj. Shift′less destitute of shifts or expedients: unsuccessful for want of proper means.—adv. Shift′lessly.—n. Shift′lessness.—adj. Shift′y full of or ready with shifts contrivances or expedients.—Shift about to vacillate: to turn quite round to the opposite point; Shift for one's self to provide for one's self; Shift of crops rotation of crops; Shift off to defer: to put away.—Make shift to find ways and means of doing something contrive.
Checker: Roy
Examples
- However, I made a shift to go forward, till I came to a part of the field where the corn had been laid by the rain and wind. Jonathan Swift. Gulliver's Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World.
- Here it is the shift from deadliness to normal family life that is the strangest, Robert Jordan thought. Hemingway, Ernest. For Whom The Bell Tolls.
- It seemed that men could not shift their weight quickly enough to meet the gusts of wind. Rupert S. Holland. Historic Inventions.
- When I was young the earth moved so that you could feel it all shift in space and were afraid it would go out from under you. Hemingway, Ernest. For Whom The Bell Tolls.
- As the arm lifts upward, the pin moves along the under side of the lower arm of the rocking-lever, thus causing it to cant and shift the type-wheels to the right or left, as desired. Frank Lewis Dyer. Edison, His Life and Inventions.
- Let us now shift the scene, if you please to Mr. Luker's house at Lambeth. Wilkie Collins. The Moonstone.
- Ever so fur as I went, ever so fur the mountains seemed to shift away from me. Charles Dickens. David Copperfield.
- But here there was nothing to be shifted off in a wild speculation on the future. Jane Austen. Emma.
- The centre of gravity of Islam shifted across the desert from Damascus to Mesopotamia. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- Public attention was shifted and a political crisis avoided. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- In 1138 the capital was shifted from Nankin, which was now too close to the northern frontier, to the city of Han Chau on the coast. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- The cloth was automatically shifted to correspond to the pattern to be produced, and thus was chain stitch embroidery first manufactured. William Henry Doolittle. Inventions in the Century.
- When a ray of light passes through plane glass, like a window pane, it is shifted somewhat, but its direction does not change; that is, the emergent ray is parallel to the incident ray. Bertha M. Clark. General Science.
- The figure perceptibly gave up its fixity, shifted a step or two, and turned round. Thomas Hardy. The Return of the Native.
- The scene shifts from the plantation, to Betteredge's little sitting-room. Wilkie Collins. The Moonstone.
- The wind shifts to the weSt. Peace, peace, Banshee--keening at every window! Charlotte Bronte. Villette.
- Oh, she varies: she shifts and changes like the wind. Charlotte Bronte. Villette.
- Be it only known then, that it was just at the end of his Lorne shifts and his lawn shirts. Harriette Wilson. The Memoirs of Harriette Wilson.
- As business increased he put on a night force, and was his own foreman on both shifts. Frank Lewis Dyer. Edison, His Life and Inventions.
- She would be free forever from the shifts, the expedients, the humiliations of the relatively poor. Edith Wharton. The House of Mirth.
- When she got her money she gambled; when she had gambled it she was put to shifts to live; who knows how or by what means she succeeded? William Makepeace Thackeray. Vanity Fair.
- Mr. Jackson, shifting himself slightly in his chair, turned a tranquil gaze on the young man's burning face. Edith Wharton. The Age of Innocence.
- The shifting of the air-currents means that the centre of air-pressure moves. Rupert S. Holland. Historic Inventions.
- Otherwise, it is neither giving nor taking, but a shifting about of the position of things in space, like the stirring of water and sand with a stick. John Dewey. Democracy and Education.
- He pointed out to me the shifting colours of the landscape, and the appearances of the sky. Mary Shelley. Frankenstein_Or_The Modern Prometheus.
- In these a single machine is provided with various tools, and adapted to perform a great variety of work by shifting the position of the material and the tools. William Henry Doolittle. Inventions in the Century.
- The Wrights doubted whether this was the best form for shifting weather, and built theirs more on the pattern of the gull’s wings, curving slightly at the tips. Rupert S. Holland. Historic Inventions.
- There is but such a quantity of merit between them; just enough to make one good sort of man; and of late it has been shifting about pretty much. Jane Austen. Pride and Prejudice.
Inputed by Betty