How to use shift in a sentence
40 example sentences · noun, verb
Shift means a movement to do something, a beginning. Example: “There was a shift in the political atmosphere.”
Examples of shift by meaning
nounAn act of shifting; a slight movement or change.
- There was a shift in the political atmosphere.
- The generational shift Mr.2012 November 7, Matt Bai, “Winning a Second Term, Obama Will Confront Familiar Headwinds”, in The New York Times, archived from the...
nounA 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.
- 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
nounA 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.
- 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.1958 June, “New Track Layout and Marshalling Yard at Barking”, in Railway Magazine, page 428
nounThe gear mechanism in a motor vehicle.
- Does it come with a stick-shift?
nounAn infield shift.
- Teams often use a shift against this lefty.
nounThe act of kissing passionately.
- You were getting the shift.2023, Colin Walsh, Kala
- 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
nounA 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, →ISBN
verbTo move from one place to another; to redistribute.
- We'll have to shift these boxes to the downtown office.
- Or might it have been subterfuge—a disingenuous attempt to shift attention away from the realities of their life at sea.2012 March, William E. Carter, Merri Sue Carter, “The British Longitude Act Reconsidered”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 2...
More sentences with shift
- The notion of culture is one whose meanings are plural and shifting.From the entry plural
- The dancer kept pace with the shifting tempo of the music.From the entry tempo
- He took the swing shift for he could get more overtime.From the entry for
- He was a propa gadgie, and always bought we drinks after a long shift.From the entry we
- The freight shifted and the trailer turned over on the highway.From the entry freight
- Can you cover the morning shift tomorrow? I'll give you off next Monday instead.From the entry cover
- Shift out of low before the car gets to eight miles per hour.From the entry low
- The cashier came up short ten dollars on his morning shift.From the entry short
- The painting had a hallucinatory quality, as if it were shifting.From the entry hallucinatory
- Carl has been put on the front desk for tonight's shift.From the entry put on
- During this scene, the boy’s face shifts subtly from soft focus into sharp focus.From the entry focus
- Note the shift in tone between the first verse and the second.From the entry verse
- We lost those files during the shift to the Cleveland office.From the entry during
- James is on vacation, so I've got to do a clopen this weekend to cover his shifts.From the entry clopen
- By one hour into the shift, the boys were really cranking.From the entry crank
- The Enlightenment involved massive shifts in many areas of Western thought.From the entry massive
- The shift of the supplier gave us a saving of 10 percent.From the entry saving
- The main job of the night shift was to inventory the store, and restock when necessary.From the entry inventory
- Things really shifted into top gear once they found a new angel investor.From the entry top gear
- The salary package also included 30% shift loading to compensate for the long hours.From the entry loading
- I start my shift at three in the afternoon, and get to burn out at midnight.From the entry burn out
- A linkage in my car's transmission is broken so I can't shift out of first gear.From the entry linkage
- The eight hour shift in the mine began to wear Tim down after a few months.From the entry wear down
- You let off the throttle while you're shifting, then you resume once you've caught the next gear.From the entry let off
- His shift came up, so he had to go to work.From the entry come up
- This pedal engages the clutch, and until you do that you can't shift.From the entry engages
- You'll have to ask the graveyard shift — the equipment was here when we left.From the entry graveyard shift
Meaning of shift
- noun A movement to do something, a beginning.
- noun An act of shifting; a slight movement or change.
- noun A share, a portion assigned on division.
Questions about shift in a sentence
- How do you use shift in a sentence?
- Shift is used as a noun and verb. For example: “There was a shift in the political atmosphere.”
- What is a short sentence with shift?
- “The generational shift Mr.”
- What does shift mean?
- Shift means a movement to do something, a beginning.
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: shift (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Cite this page: “How to use shift in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/shift. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.