[
UK
/ʃˈɪft/
]
[ US /ˈʃɪft/ ]
[ US /ˈʃɪft/ ]
VERB
-
make a shift in or exchange of
First Joe led; then we switched -
move around
transfer the packet from his trouser pockets to a pocket in his jacket -
use a shift key on a keyboard
She could not shift so all her letters are written in lower case -
change gears
you have to shift when you go down a steep hill -
move very slightly
He shifted in his seat -
move sideways or in an unsteady way
The ship careened out of control -
move from one setting or context to another
shift the emphasis
shift one's attention -
lay aside, abandon, or leave for another
switch to a different brand of beer
She switched psychiatrists
The car changed lanes -
change place or direction
Shift one's position -
move abruptly
The ship suddenly lurched to the left -
change phonetically as part of a systematic historical change
Grimm showed how the consonants shifted -
change in quality
His tone shifted -
move and exchange for another
shift the date for our class reunion
NOUN
- a loose-fitting dress hanging straight from the shoulders without a waist
- a crew of workers who work for a specific period of time
- a woman's sleeveless undergarment
- an event in which something is displaced without rotation
- the key on the typewriter keyboard that shifts from lower-case letters to upper-case letters
-
the act of changing one thing or position for another
his switch on abortion cost him the election -
the act of moving from one place to another
his constant shifting disrupted the class - the time period during which you are at work
-
(geology) a crack in the earth's crust resulting from the displacement of one side with respect to the other
they built it right over a geological fault
he studied the faulting of the earth's crust - a qualitative change
How To Use shift In A Sentence
- Some of the crew went off-shift, stringing up hybrid bunks and hammocks belowdecks, the others continued working.
- The abrupt facies shift, bioturbation and cemented nature of the surfaces suggests that they represent marine flooding surfaces, formed during a rapid rise in relative sea level and/or a reduction in sediment supply.
- Now comes the news that her shifty lawyer father has only 48 hours to raise a lot of money or face financial ruin and imprisonment.
- His self-image is rooted in robotic toughness, like the shape-shifting, molten-metal fiend in Terminator 2: Judgment Day.
- I felt that weird shifting movement and a feathery light object grazed my bare skin.
- As the male voice completed its speech, she slowly shifted herself around to face a gentleman of medium height who had a smiling, benign countenance on his careworn features.
- Another friend notes a shift in the type of gifts given at wedding showers, a reversion to 1950s-style offerings: soup ladles and frilly aprons are being unwrapped along with see-through nighties and push-up bras.
- Thirty unarmed INS agents accompanied the flight, guarding the handcuffed deportees in shifts, standing in aircraft's aisles at every fifth row.
- With a full tank of fuel, the weight bias shifts rearwards slightly, which helps traction, as does the standard limited slip differential.
- Regin downshifted, tires squealing as she swerved to dodge a roadkill-bound possum. Dreams of a Dark Warrior
