shift

Meanings

A type of women's undergarment, a slip.
A change of workers, now specifically a set group of workers or period of working time.
An act of shifting; a slight movement or change.
The gear mechanism in a motor vehicle.
Alternate spelling of Shift.
A control code or character used to change between different character sets.
A bit shift.
An infield shift.
The act of kissing passionately.
A contrivance, a device to try when other methods fail.
A trick, an artifice.
The extent, or arrangement, of the overlapping of plank, brick, stones, etc., that are placed in courses so as to break joints.
A breaking off and dislocation of a seam; a fault.
A mutation in which the DNA or RNA from two different sources (such as viruses or bacteria) combine.
In violin-playing, any position of the left hand except that nearest the nut.

To move from one place to another; to redistribute.
To change in form or character; swap.
To change position.
To change residence; to leave and live elsewhere.
To change (clothes, especially underwear).
To change (someone's) clothes; sometimes specifically, to change underwear.
To change gears (in a car).
To move the keys of a typewriter over in order to type capital letters and special characters.
To switch to a character entry mode for capital letters and special characters.
To manipulate a binary number by moving all of its digits left or right; compare rotate.
To remove the first value from an array.
To dispose of.
To hurry; to move quickly.
To engage in sexual petting.
To resort to expedients for accomplishing a purpose; to contrive; to manage.
To practice indirect or evasive methods.
In violin-playing, to move the left hand from its original position next to the nut.

From Middle English schiften, from Old English sċiftan, from Proto-Germanic *skiftijaną, *skiptijaną, from earlier *skipatjaną, from Proto-Indo-European *skeyb-, from Proto-Indo-European *skey-. Cognate with Scots schift, skift, West Frisian skifte, skiftsje, Dutch schiften ("to sort, screen, winnow, part"), German schichten ("to stack, layer"), Swedish skifta ("to shift, change, exchange, vary"), Norwegian skifte ("to shift"), Icelandic skipta ("to switch"). See ship.

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