Shift

There was a shift in the political atmosphere.

c. 1620-1626, Henry Wotton, letter to Nicholas Pey My going to Oxford was not merely for shift of air.

The generational shift Mr. Obama once embodied is, in fact, well under way, but it will not change Washington as quickly — or as harmoniously — as a lot of voters once hoped.

Just last week she bought a new shift at the market.

No; without a gown, in a shift that was somewhat of the coarsest, and none of the cleanest, bedewed likewise with some odoriferous effluvia, the produce of the day's labour, with a pitchfork in her hand, Molly Seagrim approached.

At length, one night, when the company by some accident broke up much sooner than ordinary, so that the candles were not half burnt out, she was not able to resist the temptation, but resolved to have them some way or other. Accordingly, as soon as the hurry was over, and the servants, as she thought, all gone to sleep, she stole out of her bed, and went down stairs, naked to her shift as she was, with a design to steal them […]

Some wear black shifts and flesh-coloured stockings; some with curly hair, dyed yellow, are dressed like little girls in short muslin frocks.

We'll work three shifts a day till the job's done.

Work commenced at 2.30 p.m. on Saturday and continued without break until 4 a.m. on Monday morning, in the course of which three shifts of upwards of 90 men each and three steam cranes were employed.

Does it come with a stick-shift?

If you press shift-P, the preview display will change.

Teams often use a shift against this lefty.

She flicked her hair out of her eyes again and looked into yours as you put your hands on her waist. Then her tongue was in your mouth and yours was in hers. You were getting the shift. Ye were shifting.

[If] I went on dates with these two [alcohols], right, you're a deep meaningful conversation with this one, … but this one? A shift and a finger and maybe you'd go home, do you know what I mean?

If I get down, and do not break my limbs, I'll find a thousand shifts to get away: As good to die and go, as die and stay.

And if the boy have not a woman's gift To rain a shower of commanded tears, An onion will do well for such a shift

Reduced to pitiable shifts.

I'll find a thousand shifts to get away.

Little souls on little shifts rely.

This kind of change, called shift - or more memorably, 'viral sex' - tends to trigger a pandemic, because a radically different virus demands a radically different immune response, and that takes time to mobilise.

We'll have to shift these boxes to the downtown office.

But was it responsible governance to pass the Longitude Act without other efforts to protect British seamen? Or might it have been subterfuge—a disingenuous attempt to shift attention away from the realities of their life at sea.

The ability to shift profits to low-tax countries by locating intellectual property in them, which is then licensed to related businesses in high-tax countries, is often assumed to be the preserve of high-tech companies. […] current tax rules make it easy for all sorts of firms to generate […] “stateless income”: profit subject to tax in a jurisdiction that is neither the location of the factors of production that generate the income nor where the parent firm is domiciled.

As a result, I shifted my approach to focus on group-generated activities and broadened the chronological time frame.

His voice shifted from song to whisper.

She shifted slightly in her seat.

His political stance shifted daily.

We were hoping he could shift himself to take care of the problem, but he couldn't be shifted.

A maverick is an unbranded calf that has been weaned and shifts for itself.

We are shifting to America next month.

'Tis very good to wash his hands and face often, to shift his clothes, to have fair linen about him, to be decently and comely attired […].

As it were, to ride day and night; and […] not to have patience to shift me.

The first thing he did was to secure a convenient lodging at the inn where he dined; then he shifted himself, and according to the direction he had received, went to the house of Mrs. Gauntlet […].

I crested the hill and shifted into fifth.

Shifting 1001 to the left yields 10010; shifting it right yields 100.

How can I shift a grass stain?

If you shift, you might make the 2:19.

Time is running out, so I renounce a spin on a Class 387 for a fast run to Paddington on another Class 800 - a shame as the weather was perfect for pictures. Even so, it's enjoyable - boy, can those trains shift under the wires.

The question is what she's done to Waldron, said Eric. Look at him hiding in his locker there. Come on, spit it out. Did you shift her?

[…] men in distress will look to themselves in the First Place, and leave their Companions to Shift as well as they can.

My Fellow-Slaves were […] as courteous to me as I could well-expect; and as they had Plantations of their own, they gave me […] such Victuals as they had; especially on dark Nights, and at such Times as I could not shift for myself.

But this I dare auow of all those Schoole-men, that though they were exceeding wittie, yet they better teach all their Followers to shift, then to resolue, by their distinctions.

I finally shifted to Hogwarts last night!