Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner's English Dictionary - shift

(shifts, shifting, shifted) Frequency: The word is one of the 3000 most common words in English. 1. If you shift something or if it shifts, it moves slightly. He stopped, shifting his cane to his left hand... He shifted from foot to foot... The entire pile shifted and slid, thumping onto the floor. ...the squeak of his boots in the snow as he shifted his weight. VERB: V n prep/adv, V prep/adv, V, V n 2. If someone’s opinion, a situation, or a policy shifts or is shifted, it changes slightly. Attitudes to mental illness have shifted in recent years... The emphasis should be shifted more towards Parliament. VERB: V, be V-ed prep/adv • Shift is also a noun. ...a shift in government policy. N-COUNT: usu N prep 3. If someone shifts the responsibility or blame for something onto you, they unfairly make you responsible or make people blame you for it, instead of them. It was a vain attempt to shift the responsibility for the murder to somebody else... VERB: V n prep c darkgreen]disapproval 4. If a shop or company shifts goods, they sell goods that are difficult to sell. (BRIT) Some suppliers were selling at a loss to shift stock. VERB 5. If you shift gears in a car, you put the car into a different gear. (AM; in BRIT, use change) VERB 6. If a group of factory workers, nurses, or other people work shifts, they work for a set period before being replaced by another group, so that there is always a group working. Each of these set periods is called a shift. You can also use shift to refer to a group of workers who work together on a particular shift. His father worked shifts in a steel mill. N-COUNT: oft n N 7. see also shifting