GNU Collaborative International Dictionary of English

last match results

Found 3 definitions

1.       
   Shift , v. t. [imp. & p. p. Shifted; p. pr. & vb. n. Shifting.] [OE. shiften, schiften, to divide, change, remove. AS. sciftan to divide; akin to LG. & D. schiften to divide, distinguish, part Icel. skipta to divide, to part, to shift, to change, Dan skifte, Sw. skifta, and probably to Icel. skīfa to cut into slices, as n., a slice, and to E. shive, sheave, n., shiver, n.]
   To divide; to distribute; to apportion. [Obs.]
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   To which God of his bounty would shift
   Crowns two of flowers well smelling.
   Chaucer.
   
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   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.
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   Hastily he schifte him[self].
   Piers Plowman.
   
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   Pare saffron between the two St. Mary's days,
   Or set or go shift it that knowest the ways.
   Tusser.
   
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   To change the position of; to alter the bearings of; to turn; as, to shift the helm or sails.
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   Carrying the oar loose, [they] shift it hither and thither at pleasure.
   Sir W. Raleigh.
   
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   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.
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   I would advise you to shift a shirt.
   Shak.
   
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   To change the clothing of; -- used reflexively. [Obs.]
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   As it were to ride day and night; and . . . not to have patience to shift me.
   Shak.
   
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   To put off or out of the way by some expedient. “I shifted him away.”  
   Shak.
   
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   To shift off, to delay; to defer; to put off; to lay aside. -- To shift the scene, to change the locality or the surroundings, as in a play or a story.
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   Shift the scene for half an hour;
   Time and place are in thy power.
   Swift.
   
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2.       
   Shift, v. i.
   To divide; to distribute. [Obs.]
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   Some this, some that, as that him liketh shift.
   Chaucer.
   
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   To make a change or changes; to change position; to move; to veer; to substitute one thing for another; -- used in the various senses of the transitive verb.
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   The sixth age shifts
   Into the lean and slippered pantaloon.
   Shak.
   
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   Here the Baillie shifted and fidgeted about in his seat.
   Sir W. Scott.
   
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   To resort to expedients for accomplishing a purpose; to contrive; to manage.
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   Men in distress will look to themselves, and leave their companions to shift as well as they can.
   L'Estrange.
   
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   To practice indirect or evasive methods.
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   All those schoolmen, though they were exceeding witty, yet better teach all their followers to shift, than to resolve by their distinctions.
   Sir W. Raleigh.
   
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   (Naut.) To slip to one side of a ship, so as to destroy the equilibrum; -- said of ballast or cargo; as, the cargo shifted.
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3.       
   Shift , n. [Cf. Icel. skipti. See Shift, v. t.]
   The act of shifting. Specifically: (a) The act of putting one thing in the place of another, or of changing the place of a thing; change; substitution.
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   My going to Oxford was not merely for shift of air.
   Sir H. Wotton.
   
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   (b) A turning from one thing to another; hence, an expedient tried in difficulty; often, an evasion; a trick; a fraud. “Reduced to pitiable shifts.”  
   Macaulay.
   
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   I 'll find a thousand shifts to get away.
   Shak.
   
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   Little souls on little shifts rely.
   Dryden.
   
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   Something frequently shifted; especially, a woman's under-garment; a chemise.
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   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.
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   In building, the extent, or arrangement, of the overlapping of plank, brick, stones, etc., that are placed in courses so as to break joints.
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   (Mining) A breaking off and dislocation of a seam; a fault.
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   (Mus.) A change of the position of the hand on the finger board, in playing the violin.
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   To make shift, to contrive or manage in an exigency.  “I shall make shift to go without him.”  
   Shak.
   
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   [They] made a shift to keep their own in Ireland.
   Milton.
   
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