Meaning of shift in English

shift

verb

/ʃɪft/ us

/ʃɪft/

shift verb (MOVE/CHANGE)

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C1 [ I or T ]

to (cause something or someone to) move or change from one position or direction to another, especially slightly:

shift from something to something She shifted (her weight) uneasily from one foot to the other.

shift (to) The wind is expected to shift (to the east) tomorrow.

C1 [ I ]

(of an idea, opinion, etc.) to change:

Society's attitudes towards women have shifted enormously over the last century.

shift onto Media attention has shifted recently onto environmental issues.

[ T ] mainly US

(UK usually change)

to move the gears of a vehicle into different positions in order to make it go faster or slower:

shift gears In cars that are automatics, you don't have to bother with shifting gears.

shift house

Indian English

to leave your home in order to live in a new one; move house:

I've just shifted house for the third time in three years.

More examplesFewer examples

He shifted awkwardly from one foot to the other.
She shifted restlessly in her chair.
She was shifting around in her seat.
Fiona shifted around, looking embarrassed.
He shifted his gaze back to her eyes.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Placing and positioning an object

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You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:

Changing

On the road: driving & operating road vehicles

shift verb (GET RID OF)

[ T ] UK informal

to get rid of something unwanted, or to sell something:

Modern detergents will shift most stains.

The people at the toy shop expect to shift a lot of stock in the run-up to Christmas.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Removing and getting rid of things

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You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:

Selling

Idioms

shift yourself

shift (your) ground

Phrasal verb

shift for yourself

shift

noun

/ʃɪft/ us

/ʃɪft/

shift noun (GROUP)

B2 [ C, + sing/pl verb ]

a group of workers who do a job for a period of time during the day or night, or the period of time itself:

night/day shift As the night shift leave/leaves, the day shift arrive/arrives.

Are you on the night shift or the day shift? (= Do you work during the night period or the day period?)

More examplesFewer examples

I worked the last hour of my shift on autopilot.
His shift starts at seven o'clock.
She's just finished a 13-hour shift at the hospital.
Studies revealed that doctors were routinely working 15-hours shifts.
As her shift finishes, mine begins.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Workers in general

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shift noun (CHANGE)

C1 [ C ]

a change in position or direction:

shift in a shift in the wind/temperature

The shift in the balance of power in the region has had far-reaching consequences.

There has been a dramatic shift in public opinion towards peaceful negotiations.

More examplesFewer examples

The last few years have seen a shift in opinion on the issue.
The 1990s saw a shift to democratic government in eastern Europe.
Rarely has there been such a dramatic shift in American policy and tone.
Opinion polls show a dramatic shift in attitude towards the environment.
Recent years have witnessed a shift away from fatty foods.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Change and changes

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shift noun (DRESS)

[ C ]

(also shift dress)

a simple dress that hangs loosely from the shoulders

modustollens/iStock/Getty Images Plus/GettyImages

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Dresses, suits & gowns

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shift yourself

idiom UK

If you shift yourself when you have a job to do, you hurry to do the job as quickly as possible:

Come on, there's work to be done - shift yourself.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Expressions telling people to hurry up

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(Definition of shift from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

shift | American Dictionary

shift

verb [ I/T ]

/ʃɪft/

shift verb [I/T] (MOVE OR CHANGE)

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to change direction or move from one person, position, or place to another:

[ I ] The wind shifted to the east.

[ T ] She shifted her weight from one foot to the other.

[ T ] He tried to shift the blame onto his sister.

If you shift your emphasis or attitude, you change it:

[ T ] Our attention has shifted from baseball to the election.

When you shift the gears of a vehicle, you move them into different positions to change the speed of the vehicle.

Idiom

shift gears

shift

noun [ C ]

/ʃɪft/

shift noun [C] (PERIOD)

the period that a person is scheduled to work, or a group of workers who work during the same period of time:

I’m working the day shift this month.

The night shift is finished at 7 a.m.

shift noun [C] (MOVE OR CHANGE)

a change in position or direction:

There’s been a substantial shift in doctors’ methods.

(Definition of shift from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

shift | Business English

shift

verb

/ʃɪft/ us

Add to word list Add to word list

[ T ]

to move something to a different place or position:

shift sth to sth They shifted the money to another account.

shift sth out of sth Rising costs forced them to shift manufacturing work out of Europe.

[ I or T ]

to change an opinion, idea, etc.:

shift focus/emphasis/attention

shift (sth) away from sth They have shifted the emphasis of the business away from traditional manufacturing.

shift (sth) towards sth The company has shifted towards a more flexible marketing mix.

HR have shifted their position on overtime working and this will no longer be encouraged.

[ T ] COMMERCE informal

to manage to sell goods:

At that time, Sony had shifted 30 million Playstation3 consoles since launch.

The sales projections were over-optimistic and left them with $100 million of stock they couldn't shift.

shift

noun

/ʃɪft/ us

[ C ] HR, WORKPLACE

an agreed period of time during the day or night when particular employees work, in a factory, hospital, etc.:

He worked an 8 hour shift at the hospital.

begin/end your shift They begin their shift at 4pm.

[ C ] HR, WORKPLACE

the group of workers who work at a particular time:

the day/night/late shift We work until 8am, when the day shift takes over.

[ C, usually singular ]

a movement or change in something:

a shift in sth There's been a major shift in strategy.

a shift away from/towards sth The shift towards specialisation favours smaller firms.

[ U ] IT

on a computer keyboard, a key that changes the letter, number, or symbol that would normally appear when you press another key at the same time:

Press shift to capitalize letters.

See also

back shift
graveyard shift
night shift
paradigm shift
swing shift

(Definition of shift from the Cambridge Business English Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

Examples of shift

shift

In that way, those who occupy veto points may be bought out, thereby allowing policy to be shifted onto a new path.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

An important part of the development of chemotherapy services has been the shift in administration and support for chemotherapy towards specialist nursing services.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Including too few elements would result in numerous unnecessary focus shifts whereas including too many elements would preclude real focus shifts.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

In other words, a conversational move provokes a focus shift.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

However, this increase masks a shift from child-minders to day nurseries since the late 1990s.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The shift was evident in the area of social care delivery.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

These changes have in effect shifted costs from employers to workers.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

This has been described as a shift from government to governance: from representative to participatory democracy.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

There was another shift in the 1980s, due to the needs of uncertain reasoning in virtually all applications of expert systems, especially in medicine.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The shifts are long enough to produce any order.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

But acknowledging antecedents should not blind us to important intellectual shifts in the early twentieth century.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

These organisations then shifted their attention to the observation of democratisation between elections.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

By shifting the threshold systematically, effectively the host population is stratified.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

In addition, if a population shift were the source of alarms, we would expect those alarms to appear mainly in one area or another.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

When water flows, the temperature distribution and the water composition distribution change their form or at least are shifted in the direction of the flow.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

See all examples of shift

These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.

What is the pronunciation of shift?

Translations of shift

in Chinese (Traditional)

移動或改變, （尤指略微地）移動, 改變…

in Chinese (Simplified)

移动或改变, （尤指略微地）移动, 改变…

in Spanish

turno, cambio, vestido liso…

in Portuguese

turno, mudança, mudar…

in more languages

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in Italian

बदलणे, बदल होणे, सरकणे…

（交代制の）勤務時間, シフト, 変化…

değişim, değişme, vardiya…

changer, (se) modifier, se déplacer…

torn, canvi…

van plaats (doen) veranderen, schuiven op, verwijderen…

ஒரு நிலை அல்லது திசையிலிருந்து மற்றொரு இடத்திற்கு நகர்த்த அல்லது மாற்றுவதற்கு (ஒன்றை அல்லது ஒருவரை ஏற்படுத்துதல்) குறிப்பாக சற்று, (ஒரு யோசனை, கருத்து…

(दिशा या अवस्था में) परिवर्तन करना, (विचार, राय आदि का) बदल जाना…

ફેરબદલી, પરિવર્તન, પાળી…

flytte, skifte, skyde…

flytta [om], skifta, ändra sig…

mengalih, mengalihkan, menanggalkan…

verschieben, umspringen, abschieben…