Shift — Defs

01 v. t. To divide; to distribute; to apportion.

imp. & p. p. Shifted; p. pr. & vb. n. Shifting

1.
To divide; to distribute; to apportion.[Obs.]
“To which God of his bounty would shift Crowns two of flowers well smelling.” — Chaucer.
2.
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.
“Hastily he schifte him[self].” — Piers Plowman.

“Pare saffron between the two St. Mary's days, Or set or go shift it that knowest the ways.” — Tusser.
3.
To change the position of; to alter the bearings of; to turn; as, to shift the helm or sails.
“Carrying the oar loose, [they] shift it hither and thither at pleasure.” — Sir W. Raleigh.
4.
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.
“I would advise you to shift a shirt.” — Shak.
5.
To change the clothing of; -- used reflexively.[Obs.]
“As it were to ride day and night; and . . . not to have patience to shift me.” — Shak.
6.
To put off or out of the way by some expedient.
“Shift the scene for half an hour; Time and place are in thy power.” — Swift.

Phrases & compounds

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.

02 v. i. To divide; to distribute.

1.
To divide; to distribute.[Obs.]
“Some this, some that, as that him liketh shift.” — Chaucer.
2.
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.
“The sixth age shifts Into the lean and slippered pantaloon.” — Shak.

“Here the Baillie shifted and fidgeted about in his seat.” — Sir W. Scott.
3.
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.
4.
To practice indirect or evasive methods.
“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.
5.
To slip to one side of a ship, so as to destroy the equilibrum; -- said of ballast or cargo; as, the cargo shifted.(Naut.)

03 n. The act of shifting.

1.
The act of shifting.
“My going to Oxford was not merely for shift of air.” — Sir H. Wotton.

“I 'll find a thousand shifts to get away.” — Shak.

“Little souls on little shifts rely.” — Dryden.
2.
Something frequently shifted; especially, a woman's under-garment; a chemise.
3.
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.
4.
In building, the extent, or arrangement, of the overlapping of plank, brick, stones, etc., that are placed in courses so as to break joints.
5.
A breaking off and dislocation of a seam; a fault.(Mining)
6.
A change of the position of the hand on the finger board, in playing the violin.(Mus.)
“[They] made a shift to keep their own in Ireland.” — Milton.