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Webster's Dictionary (1865)

3 entries under this word

Shift

Shift, v. t.

verbtransitive

v. t. [imp. & p. p. SHIFTED; p. pr. & vb. n. SHIFTING.] [A-S. sciftan, to divide, to order, declare, appoint, to verge, decline, drive away; L. Ger. & D. schiften, to divide, distinguish, part; M. H. Ger. schihten, N. H. Ger. schichten, Dan. skifte, Sw. & O. Fries. skifta, Icel. skipta, to divide, distribute, change.]

  1. To change; to alter; as, to shift the scenes.
  2. To transfer from one place or position to another; as, shift the helm; shift the sails.
  3. To put off or out of the way by some expedient. “I shifted him away.” Shak.
  4. To change, as clothes; as, to shift a coat.
  5. To dress in fresh clothes; as, let him have time to shift himself.

To shift about, to turn quite round to a contrary side or opposite point.—To shift off. (a.) To delay; to defer; as, to shift off the duties of religion. (b.) To put away; to disengage or disencumber one's self, as of a burden or inconvenience.

Shift, v. i.

verbintransitive

v. i. 1. To vary from one point or direction to another; to change about; to move. Here the Baillie shifted and fidgeted about in his seat. W. Scott.

  1. To change one's occupation or principles.
  2. To change one's clothes, especially the under garments.
  3. To satisfy one's wants by changing.
  4. To resort to expedients for accomplishing a purpose; to contrive; to manage.

Men in distress will look to themselves, and leave their companions to shift as well as they can. L'Estrange. 6. To practice indirect methods. All those school-men, though they were exceeding witty, yet better teach all their followers to shift, than to resolve by their distinctions. Raleigh. 7. To change place; as, a cargo shifts from one side to the other.

Shift, n.

noun

n. [A-S. scift, Icel. skipt, Ger. schicht.] 1. A turning from one thing to another; a change; hence, an expedient tried in difficulty; one thing tried when another fails; a contrivance. I'll find a thousand shifts to get away. Shak.

  1. A temporary or deceitful expedient; fraud; artifice; expedient to effect a bad purpose; an evasion; a trick to escape detection or evil. “Often reduced to pitiable shifts.” Macaulay.
  2. An under garment; a shirt; especially, a woman's under garment; a chemise.
  3. A miner's spell or turn of work. Simmonds.

To make shift, to contrive for the moment; to manage. “I shall make shift to go.” Shak. For that the Protestants were then on the winning hand, it must needs be plain: who, notwithstanding the miss of those forces, which at their landing here mastered without difficulty great part of Wales and Cheshire, yet made a shift to keep their own in Ireland. Milton.