How do you use the word "shift" in a sentence?

Q: How do you use the word "shift" in a sentence?

Here are real-life examples of using "shift": When I speak to a Westerner, I have to shift mental gears, so to speak. Shift the sofa so that it faces the fireplace.

Shift Meaning

/ˈʃɪft/

Definition, CEFR level B1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.

Definition

nounA movement to do something, a beginning.

nounAn act of shifting; a slight movement or change.

Sentence Examples

When I speak to a Westerner, I have to shift mental gears, so to speak.

Shift the sofa so that it faces the fireplace.

Synonyms & Antonyms

Synonyms:

transfer switch transformation

Antonyms:

None

CEFR Practice Quiz

Nurse Jane worked the night ____ at the hospital for three years.

CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)

The nurse was exhausted after finishing her twelve-hour night ____ at the busy hospital.

Word Origin & History

The noun is from Middle English schyft, shyffte. Cognate with German Schicht (“layer, shift”). The verb is from Middle English schiften, from Old English sċiftan (“to divide, separate into shares; appoint, ordain; arrange, organise”), from Proto-Germanic *skiftijaną, *skiptijaną, from earlier *skipatjaną (“to organise, put in order”), from Proto-Indo-European *skeyb- (“to separate, divide, part”), from Proto-Indo-European *skey- (“to cut, divide, separate, part”). Cognate with Scots schift, skift (“to shift”), West Frisian skifte, skiftsje (“to sort”), Dutch schiften (“to sort, screen, winnow, part”), German schichten (“to stack, layer”), Swedish skifta (“to shift, change, exchange, vary”), Norwegian skifte (“to shift”), Icelandic skipta (“to switch”). See ship.

Literary Quotations & Historical Citations

"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." — 2012 November 7, Matt Bai, “Winning a Second Term, Obama Will Confront Familiar Headwinds”, in New York Times:

"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." — 1749, Henry Fielding, chapter X, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, book V:

"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 […]" — 1762, Charles Johnstone, The Reverie; or, A Flight to the Paradise of Fools, volume 2, Dublin: Printed by Dillon Chamberlaine, →OCLC, page 202:

"Some wear black shifts and flesh-coloured stockings; some with curly hair, dyed yellow, are dressed like little girls in short muslin frocks." — 1919, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, “chapter 47”, in The Moon and Sixpence, [New York, N.Y.]: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers […], →OCLC:

"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." — 1958 June 26, “New Track Layout and Marshalling Yard at Barking”, in Railway Magazine, page 428:

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