Word.ws English Dictionary

shift

/ˈʃɪft/

shift noun: a movement to do something, a beginning. Also the alternative letter-case form of Shift.

Noun (1)

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.
    • My going to Oxford was not merely for shift of air.c. 1620-1626, Henry Wotton, letter to Nicholas Pey
  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.
    • 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
  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.
    • 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
  7. (US) The gear mechanism in a motor vehicle.
    • Does it come with a stick-shift?
  8. A control code or character used to change between different character sets.
    1. An instance of the use of such a code or character.
  9. A bit shift.
  10. An infield shift.
    • Teams often use a shift against this lefty.
  11. (Ireland, often, uncountable, usually, crude slang) The act of kissing passionately.
    • 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.2023, Colin Walsh, Kala
    • [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
  12. (archaic) A contrivance, a device to try when other methods fail.
    • 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]...
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  1. (archaic) A trick, an artifice.
    • 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 shiftc. 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]...
    • 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...
  2. The extent, or arrangement, of the overlapping of plank, brick, stones, etc., that are placed in courses so as to break joints.
  3. A breaking off and dislocation of a seam; a fault.
  4. 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, →ISBN
  5. In violin-playing, any position of the left hand except that nearest the nut.
  6. A period of time in which one's consciousness resides in another reality, usually achieved through meditation or other means.
  7. (British, slang) be done; ruined

Verb

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

  1. (figuratively, sometimes, transitive) To move from one place to another; to redistribute.
    • We'll have to shift these boxes to the downtown office.
    • By shifting the longitude problem to the scientific community, they stifled public criticism of their inability to solve the problem. […] 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...2012 March, William E. Carter, Merri Sue Carter, “The British Longitude Act Reconsidered”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 2, page 87
  2. (ergative, figuratively) 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. (figuratively, intransitive, reflexive, sometimes) To change position; to move.
    • She shifted slightly in her seat.
    • His political stance shifted daily.
    Synonyms:
    reposition
  4. (India, intransitive) To change residence; to leave and live elsewhere.
    • We are shifting to America next month.
    Synonyms:
    move, relocate
  5. (obsolete, transitive) To change (clothes, especially underwear); to change the clothes of.
    • '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, reflexive, transitive) To change (someone's) clothes; sometimes specifically, to change underwear.
    • 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, […]. Epilogue.”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […]...
    • 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
  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) 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.
    Antonyms:
    unshift
  11. (transitive) To remove (the first value from an array).
  12. (transitive) To dispose of, remove.
    • How can I shift a grass stain?
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  1. (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.2020 December 2, Paul Bigland, “My weirdest and wackiest Rover yet”, in Rail, page 68
  2. (Ireland, slang, transitive, vulgar) To engage in sexual petting with.
    • 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
  3. (archaic, intransitive) To resort to expedients for accomplishing a purpose; to cope, get by, manage, make do.
    • You need to learn to shift for yourself.
    • […] 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]...
  4. (intransitive) To practice indirect or evasive methods; to contrive.
    • 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
  5. (intransitive) In violin-playing, to move the left hand from its original position next to the nut.
  6. (intransitive) To use meditation or other means to change the reality that one's consciousness resides in.
    • I finally shifted to Hogwarts last night!
  7. (Nigeria, slang) To steal or kidnap.
  8. To crouch in game, especially if the shift key is pressed to initiate crouching.

Noun (2) capitalized: Shift

Shift (plural Shifts)

  1. A modifier key whose main function is shifting between two or more functions of any of certain other keys (usually by pressing Shift and the other button simultaneously).
    Synonyms:
    shift key

Also used as

shift is also the alternative letter-case form of Shift.

shift meaning in Hindi, Urdu, Telugu and Tagalog

shift in Hindi

act of shifting
स्थानांतरण sthānāntraṇ
change of workers
बारी bārī, पाली pālī

shift in Urdu

change of workers
شِفْٹ śifṭ, نَوبَت naubat

shift in Telugu

act of shifting
మార్పు mārpu
change of workers
బదిలీ badilī
to change, swap
మార్చు mārcu
transitive: to move from one place to another
మార్చు mārcu

shift in Tagalog

change of workers
tanda
More languagesFewer languages
shift in Arabic
نَوْبَة nawba
shift in Indonesian
penjelmaan, giliran, gigi, persneling
shift in Persian
شیفت šift, جابهجا کردن jâ-be-jâ kardan, جابهجا شدن jâ-be-jâ šodan, انداختن andâxtan
shift in Thai
กะ gà
shift in Vietnamese
sự chuyển, sự thay đổi, sự giao ban, ban

Examples of shift in a sentence

  • We were hoping he could shift himself to take care of the problem, but he couldn't be shifted.
  • 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:
  • 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, &...
  • 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...
  • A maverick is an unbranded calf that has been weaned and shifts for itself.1914 January, Zane Grey, The Light of Western Stars: A Romance, New York, N.Y.; London: Harper & Brothers Publishers, →OCLC, page 59:

All 40 example sentences with shift

Synonyms of shift

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of shift

Forms of shift

Noun
pluralshifts
pluralShifts
alternative formshift
Verb
third-person singular presentshifts
present participleshifting
past participleshifted
pastshifted

Past tense of shift: shifted

Plural of shift: shifts

Origin of shift

The verb is from Middle English schiften, from Old English sċiftan (“to divide, separate into shares; appoint, ordain; arrange, organise”), from Proto-West Germanic *skiftijan, 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”), Low German schichten (“to stack, layer”), German schichten (“to stack, layer”), Swedish skifta (“to shift, change, exchange, vary”), Norwegian skifte (“to shift”), Icelandic skipta (“to switch”). See ship. The noun is from Middle English schyft, shyffte. Cognate with Dutch schift (“split, fissure”), German Schicht (“layer, shift”).

From shift.

Words formed from shift

Phrases with shift

41 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with shift

11 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about shift

What does shift mean?
Shift means a movement to do something, a beginning.
What is shift in Hindi?
Shift in Hindi is स्थानांतरण (sthānāntraṇ), बारी (bārī), पाली (pālī). See Shift meaning in Hindi.
How do you use shift in a sentence?
We were hoping he could shift himself to take care of the problem, but he couldn't be shifted.
What part of speech is shift?
Shift can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce shift?
Shift is pronounced /ˈʃɪft/.
What is the plural of shift?
The plural of shift is shifts.

Words near shift in the dictionary

  1. Shiflett
  2. Shifletts
  3. Shifnal
  4. Shifrin
  5. Shifrins
  6. shift
  7. shift about
  8. shift and drift
  9. shift break
  10. shift breaks
  11. shift dress

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: shift (page history and authors); Shift (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-ca-shift.oga, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-shift.wav.

Cite this entry: “shift.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/shift. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.