Word.ws English Dictionary

shifting gears

shifting gears is the present participle of shift gears.

Meaning of shift gears

Verb

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

  1. To change the gear by which motion is transmitted from a powered shaft to another shaft, especially in a motor vehicle.
  2. (idiomatic) To change pace or mode of operation.

Questions about shifting gears

What is shifting gears the present participle of?
Shifting gears is the present participle of shift gears.

Words near shifting gears in the dictionary

  1. shifting about
  2. shifting baseline syndrome
  3. shifting cultivation
  4. shifting executory interest
  5. shifting executory interests
  6. shifting gears
  7. shifting ground
  8. shifting in
  9. shifting off
  10. shifting one's ground
  11. shifting out

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: shifting gears (page history and authors); shift gears (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.

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