shield-urchin 
Shield-urchin (sheld'er"chin), n. A clypeas- 
troid sea-urchin ; an echinoid of flattened and 
irregular or circular form; especially, a mem- 
ber of the Scutcllidse. See cut under Cli/iif- 
astridtt, 
shieling (she'ling), n. Same as sheaft. 
shier, shiest (shi'er, shi'est), a. Forms of the 
comparative and superlative of shy. 
Shift (shift), v. [< ME. shif ten, schiften, shyf- 
ti'ii, < AS. xciftait, sfiiftan, divide, separate, = 
D. schifteii = MLG. schiften, schichten, LG. schif- 
ten, divide, separate, turn, = Icel. skipta (for 
''H/.-ifta) = Sw. skifta = Dan. slifte, divide, part, 
shift, change ; cf. Icel. skifa, shive, cut in slices : 
sees/lire.] I. trans. 1. To divide; partition; 
distribute; apportion; assign: as, to shift lands 
among coheirs. [Obsolete or prov. Eng.] 
Witness Tybnrces and Valerians shrifte, 
To whiche God of his bountee wolde shifte 
Corones two of floures wel smellinge. 
Chaucer, Second Nun's Tale, 1. 278. 
2. To transfer or move, as from one person, 
place, or position to another: as, to shift the 
blame; to shift one's quarters; to shift the load 
to the other shoulder. 
For good maner he hath from hyni schifte. 
Babees Book (K E. T. S.), p. 36. 
Unto Southampton do we shift our scene. 
Shak., Hen. V., ii., Prol., 1. 42. 
You are a man, and men may shift affections. 
Fletcher (and another), Sea Voyage, iv. 2. 
And now supine, now prone, the hero lay, 
Now shift* his side, impatient for the day. 
Pope, Iliad, xxiv. 18. 
The shepherd shifts his mantle's fold, 
And wraps him closer from the cold. 
Scott, Marmion, i., Int. 
3f. To cause or induce to move off or away ; 
get rid of, as by the use of some expedient. 
Whilst you were here o'erwhelmed with your grief, . . . 
Cassio came hither ; I shifted him away. 
v Shak., Othello, iv. 1. 79. 
Then said Christian to himself again, These beasts 
range in the night for their prey, and if they should meet 
with me in the dark how should I shift them ? how should 
I escape being by them torn in pieces? 
Bunyan, Pilgrim's Progress, p. 116. 
4. To remove and replace with another or 
others; put off and replace; change: as, to 
shift one's clothes; to shift the scenes on a 
stage. 
Sir, I would advise you to shift a shirt. 
Shak., Cymbeline, i. 2. 1. 
It rained most part of this night, yet our captain kept 
abroad, and was forced to come in in the night to shift his 
clothes. Winthrop, Hist. New England, I. 26. 
5. To clothe (one's self) afresh or anew ; change 
the dress of. 
As it were, to ride day and night ; and . . . not to have 
patience to shift me. Shak., 2 Hen. IV., v. 5. 23. 
6. To alter or vary in character, form, or other 
respect; change. 
For who observes strict policy's true laws 
Shifts his proceeding to the varying cause. 
Drayton, Barons' Wars, i. 57. 
Every language must continually change and shift its 
form, exhibiting like an organized being its phases of 
growth, decline, and decay. 
C. Elton, Origins of Eng. Hist, p. 103. 
Shift the helm. See helmi. To shift a berth (naut.\ 
to move to another place in the same harbor. To shift 
Off. (a) To delay ; defer : as, to shift off the duties of re- 
ligion, (b) To put away ; disengage or disencumber one's 
self of, as of a burden or inconvenience. 
Il.t intrant. 1. To make division or distribu- 
tion. 
Everich hath of God a propre gifte, 
Som this, some that, as hym liketh to shifte. 
Chaucer, Prol. to Wife of Bath's Tale, 1. 104. 
2. To change, (a) To pass into a different form ; give 
place to something different : as, the scene shifts. 
The sixth age shifts 
Into the lean and slipper'd pantaloon. 
Shak., As you Like it, ii. 7. 157. 
If ... the ideas of our minds . . . constantly change 
and shift in a continual succession, it would be impossi- 
ble, may any one say, for a man to think long of any one 
thing. Locke, Human Understanding, II. xiv. 13. 
(6) To change place, position, direction, or the like ; move. 
Most of the Indians, perceiving what they went about, 
shifted overboard, and after they returned, and killed such 
as remained. Winthrop, Hist. New England, I. 146. 
Thou hast shifted out of thy tale into telling me of the 
fashion. Shak., Much Ado, iii. 3. 151. 
You vary your scene with so much ease, and shift from 
court to camp with such facility. Steele, Lying Lover, i. 1. 
Here the Baillie shifted and fidgeted about in his seat. 
Scott. 
The wind hardly shifted a point during the passage. 
R. II. Dana, Jr., Before the Mast, p. 286. 
(c) To change dress, particularly the nnder-garments. 
When from the sheets her lovely form she lifts, 
She begs you just would turn you, while she shifts. 
Youny, Love of Fame, vi. 42. 
5571 
3. To use changing methods or expedients, as 
in a case of difficulty, in earning a livelihood, 
or the like ; adopt expedients ; contrive in one 
way or another ; do the best one can ; seize 
one expedient when another fails : as, to shift 
for a living; to shift for one's self. 
And dressed them in redynes with suche thynges as 
they thought shuld best releue them and helpe theym at 
the shore to saue theyr lyues, and wayted for none other, 
but euery man to shyfte for his escape as Almyghty God 
wolde yeue theym grace. 
Sir R. Gw/lforde, Pylgrymage, p. 60. 
I must shift for life, 
Though I do loathe it. 
Beau. andFl., Philaster, iv. 3. 
After receiving a very indifferent education, she is left 
in Mrs. Goddard's hands to shift as she can. 
Jane Austen, Emma, viii. 
4. To pick up or make out a livelihood ; man- 
age to succeed. 
She that hath wit may shift anywhere. 
Middleton, Chaste Maid, ii. 2. 
Every man would be forced to provide winter fodder for 
his team (whereas common garrons shift upon grass the 
year round). 
Sir W. Temple, Advancement of Trade in Ireland. 
5. To practise indirect methods. 
All those schoolmen, though they were exceeding witty, 
yet better teach all their followers to shift than to resolve 
by their distinctions. Raleigh. 
6. In playing the violin or a similar instrument, 
to move the left hand from its first or original 
position next to the nut. To shift about, to turn 
quite round to a contrary side or opposite point ; vacillate. 
To shift for one's self, to take care of or provide for 
one's self. 
I will be cheated. . . . Not in grosse, but by retaile, 
to try mens severall wits, and so learne to shift for my- 
selfe in time and need be. 
Brome, The Sparagus Garden, ii. 3. 
Let Posterity shift for itself. 
Congreve, Way of the World, i. 1. 
= Syn, 2. To vary, veer chop. 
Shift (shift), n. [< ME. shift, schift = Icel. skipti 
(for *skifti) =. Sw. Dan. skifte, a division, ex- 
change, shift: see shift, .] 1. Change; altera- 
tion or variation in kind, character, place, posi- 
tion, direction, or the like ; the substitution of 
one thing, kind, position, direction, or the like 
for another. 
He had shifte of lodgings, where in euery place his host- 
esse writte vp the wofull remembrance of him. 
Oreene, Groatsworth of Wit. 
Languages are like Laws or Coins, which commonly re- 
ceive some change at every Shift of Princes. 
Howell, Letters, iv. 19. 
With the progress of the Teutonic tribes northwestward 
they came to use for each smooth mute the corresponding 
rough, for a rough the corresponding middle, for a middle 
the corresponding smooth. This first shift is believed to 
have been completed during the third century. 
F. A. Starch, Anglo-Saxon Gram., 41. 
2. In playing the violin or a similar instru- 
ment, any position of the left hand except 
that nearest the nut. When the hand is close to the 
nut, so that the first finger produces the next tone to that 
of the open string, it is said to be in the first position; 
when it is moved so that the first finger falls where the 
second was originally, it is in the second position or at the 
half-shift. The third position is called the whole shift, 
and the fourth position the double shift. When the hand 
is not in the first position, it is said to be on the shift. 
3. The substitution of one thing or set of 
things for another; a change: as, a shift of 
clothes. 
They told him their comming was for some extraordinary 
tooles, and shift of apparell : by which colourable excuse 
they obtained sixe or seauen more to their confederate. 
Quoted in Capt. John Smith's Works, I. 213. 
4. A woman's under-garment ; a chemise. 
At home they (the women at Loheia] wear nothing hut 
a long shift of flue cotton-cloth, suitable to their quality. 
Bruce, Source of the Nile, I. 307. 
Having more care of him than of herself, 
So that she clothes her only with a shift. 
Longfellow, tr. of Dante's Inferno, xxiii. 42. 
5. In mining, a slight fault or dislocation of a 
seam or stratum, accompanied by depression 
of one part, destroying the continuity. 6. A 
squad or relay of men who alternate with an- 
other squad or relay in carrying on some work 
or operation ; hence, the time during which such 
a squad or relay works : as, to be on the day 
shift; a night shift; the day is divided into 
three shifts of eight hours each. 
Each shift comprised 1 foreman, 4 drill-men, 4 assistant 
drill-men, 1 powder-man, 1 car-man, and 2 laborers. 
Appleton's Ann. Cyc., 1886, p. 318. 
7. Turn; move; varying circumstance. 
Truth's self, like yonder slow moon to complete 
Heaven, rose sixain, and, naked at his feet, 
Lighted his old life's every shift and change. 
Browning, Sordello, vi. 
shifting 
8. An expedient, device, or contrivance which 
may lie tried when others fail ; a resource. 
If 1'iiul had had other shift, and a man of age as meet 
for the room, he would not have put Timothy in the office. 
Tyndalc, Ana. to .Sir T. More, etc. (Parker Soc., 1850), p. 18. 
I'll find a thousand shift^o get away. 
Shak., K. John, iv. 3. 7. 
The shifts to which, in this difficulty, he has recourse 
are exceedingly diverting. 
Alacavlay, Sadler's Ref. Refuted. 
Hence 9. A petty or indirect expedient; 
a dodge ; a trick ; an artifice. 
Me thinkes yat you smile at some pleasannt shift. 
Lyly, Euphucs, Anat. of Wit, p. 82. 
I see a man here needs not live by shifts, 
When in the streets he meets such golden gifts. 
Shak., C. of E., iii. 2. 187. 
10. In liiiMiiifl, a mode of arranging the tiers 
of bricks, timbers, planks, etc., so that the 
joints of adjacent rows shall not coincide. 
Shift of crops, in agri., a change or variation in the 
succession of crops ; rotation of crops : as, a farm is 
wrought on the five years' shift or the six years' shift. 
To make shift, to contrive; find ways and means of 
doing something or of overcoming a difficulty. 
I hope I shall make shift to go without him. 
Shak, M. of V., i. 2. 97. 
Acres. Odds crowns and laurels! your honour follows you 
to the grave. 
David. Now, that 's just the place where I could make a 
ehift to do without it. Sheridan, The Kivals, iv. 1. 
=Syn. 8. Device, Resort, etc. (see expedient), stratagem. 
9. Subterfuge, etc. (see evasion), dodge, ruse, wile, quirk. 
shiftable (shif 'ta-bl), a. [< shift + -able.] Ca- 
pable of being shifted or changed. 
Shifter (shifter), n. [< shift + -eel.] 1. One 
who shifts or changes : as, a scene-shifter. 2f. 
Naut., a person employed to assist the ship's 
cook in washing, steeping, and shifting the salt 
provisions. 3. A contrivance used in shifting. 
(o) A kind of clutch used in shifting a belt from a loose to 
a fixed pulley. (o) In a knitting-machine, a mechanism, 
consisting of a combination of needles or rods, serving to 
move the outer loops of a course and to put them on the 
next needles, within or without, in order to narrow or to 
widen the fabric. K. H. Knight, (c) A locomotive used 
for shunting cars. 
4. One who is given to change ; a fickle person ; 
also, one who resorts to petty shifts or expedi- 
ents ; one who practises artifice ; a dodger ; a 
trickster; a cozener. 
Go, thou art an honest shifter ; I'll have the statute re- 
pealed for thee. B. Jonson, Poetaster, iii. 1. 
He scornes to be a changeling or a shifter; he feares 
nothing but this, that hee shall fall into the Lord your 
fathers hands for want of reparations. 
Heywood, Royal King (Works, ed. Pearson, 1874, VI. 38). 
Car-truck shifter, a mechanism for facilitating the 
change of car-trucks on railroads where the gage varies, or 
where trucks are to be repaired or to be replaced by others. 
shifter-bar (shifter-bar), n. In a knitting- 
machine, a bar having projections or stops 
which serve to stop one needle-carrier bolt 
while they lift the corresponding one. E. H. 
Knight. 
shiftiness (shif ti-nes), . The character of be- 
ing shifty, in any sense. 
shifting (shifting), n. [< ME. schifting ; ver- 
bal n. of shift, v.~) 1. A moving or removal; 
change from one place, position, or state to an- 
other; change. 
.Elian therefore compares them to Cranes, & Aristides 
to the Scythian Nomades ; alway by this shifting enjoying 
a temperate season. Purchas, Pilgrimage, p. 362. 
The . . . vicissitudes and shiftings of ministerial m 
sures. Burke, Conciliation with Ameri 
2. Recourse to shifts, or petty expedients ; arti- 
fice; shift. 
Nought more than subtill shiftings did me please, 
With bloodshed, craftie, undermining men. 
Mir. for Mags., p. 144. 
shifting (shif 'ting), p. a. 1. Changing; change- 
able or changeful ; varying ; unstable : as, shift- 
ing winds. 
Neither do I know how it were possible for Merchants 
in these parts to Trade by Sea from one Country to an- 
other, were it not for these shifting Monsoons, 
Dampier, Voyages, II. iii. 23. 
The great problem of the shifting relation between pas- 
sion and duty is clear to no man who is capable of appre- 
hending it. Oeorge Eliot, Mill on the Floss, vii. 2. 
2. Shifty. 
Seducement is to be hindered ... by opposing truth 
to errour, no unequal match : truth the strong, to errour 
the weak, though sly and shifting. Milton, Civil Power. 
Shifting ballast, ballast capable of being moved about, 
as pigs of iron or bags of sand. Shif ting bar, in printing, 
a movable cross-bar that can be fitted in a chase by dove- 
tails, as required. E. H. Knight. Shifting beach, a beach 
of gravel that is shifted or moved by the action of the sea 
or the current of a river. Shifting center. Same as meta- 
center. Shifting clause. See clause. Shifting coup- 
ling. See coupling. 4 (i). Shifting rail, a temporary or 
removable bark to the seat of a vehicle. Shifting use, 
in law. See use. 
ea- 
ica. 
