different between shift vs device

English

Etymology

From Middle English schiften, from Old English s?iftan (“to divide, separate into shares; appoint, ordain; arrange, organise”), from Proto-Germanic *skiftijan?, *skiptijan?, from earlier *skipatjan? (“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.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American, Canada) enPR: sh?ft, IPA^(key): /??ft/
• (Canada)
• Rhymes: -?ft

Noun

shift (countable and uncountable, plural shifts)

1. (historical) A type of women's undergarment, a slip.

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

   • 1919, W. Somerset Maugham, The Moon and Sixpence, chapter 47

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

2. A change of workers, now specifically a set group of workers or period of working time.

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

3. An act of shifting; a slight movement or change.

   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.
4. (US) The gear mechanism in a motor vehicle.

   Does it come with a stick-shift?

5. Alternative spelling of Shift (“a modifier button of computer keyboards”).

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

6. (computing) A bit shift.
7. (baseball) The infield shift.

   Teams often use the shift against this lefty.

8. (Ireland, crude slang, often with the definite article, usually uncountable) The act of kissing passionately.
9. (archaic) A contrivance, a device to try when other methods fail.
   • 1596, Shakespeare, History of King John

     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.

10. (archaic) A trick, an artifice.
    • 1593, Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew

      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

    • Little souls on little shifts rely.

11. (construction) The extent, or arrangement, of the overlapping of plank, brick, stones, etc., that are placed in courses so as to break joints.
12. (mining) A breaking off and dislocation of a seam; a fault.
13. (genetics) A mutation in which the DNA or RNA from two different sources (such as viruses or bacteria) combine.
14. (music) In violin-playing, any position of the left hand except that nearest the nut.

Hyponyms

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

shift (third-person singular simple present shifts, present participle shifting, simple past and past participle shifted)

1. (transitive, sometimes figuratively) To move from one place to another; to redistribute.
2. (transitive, figuratively) To change in form or character; swap.
   • 2008, June Granatir Alexander, Ethnic Pride, American Patriotism (page ix)

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

3. (intransitive) To change position.

4. (intransitive, India) To change residence; to leave and live elsewhere.

   Synonym: move

5. (obsolete, transitive) To change (clothes, especially underwear).
   • , II.ii.2:

     '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 […].

6. (obsolete, transitive, reflexive) To change (someone's) clothes; sometimes specifically, to change underwear.
   • c. 1597, William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part 2, Act V, Scene 5,^[3]

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

   • 1751, Tobias Smollett, The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle, I.21:

     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 […] .

7. (intransitive) To change gears (in a car).

8. (typewriters) To move the keys of a typewriter over in order to type capital letters and special characters.
9. (computer keyboards) To switch to a character entry mode for capital letters and special characters.
10. (transitive, computing) To manipulate a binary number by moving all of its digits left or right; compare rotate.

11. (transitive, computing) To remove the first value from an array.
12. (transitive) To dispose of.

13. (intransitive) To hurry; to move quickly.
14. (Ireland, vulgar, slang) To engage in sexual petting.
15. (archaic) To resort to expedients for accomplishing a purpose; to contrive; to manage.
    • 1692, Roger L’Estrange, Fables of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists with Morals and Reflexions, London: R. Sare et al., Fable 83, Reflexion, p. 81,^[4]

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

    • 1743, Robert Drury, The Pleasant, and Surprizing Adventures of Mr. Robert Drury, during his Fifteen Years Captivity on the Island of Madagascar, London, p. 112,^[5]

      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.

16. To practice indirect or evasive methods.
    • 1614, Walter Raleigh, History of the World, London: Walter Burre, Part 1, Chapter 3, Section 7, p. 45,^[6]

      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.

17. (music) In violin-playing, to move the left hand from its original position next to the nut.

Synonyms

• (to change, swap): interchange, swap; See also Thesaurus:switch
• (to move from one place to another): relocate, transfer; See also Thesaurus:move
• (to change position): reposition
• (to dispose of): get rid of, remove; See also Thesaurus:junk
• (to hurry): hasten, rush; See also Thesaurus:rush
• (to engage in sexual petting): fondle, grope; see also Thesaurus:fondle

Antonyms

• (computing): unshift

Derived terms

• ever-shifting, evershifting
• preshift
• unshift

Translations

Portuguese

Noun

shift m (plural shifts)

1. shift (button on a keyboard)

English

Etymology

From Old French devis, from Latin divisus, past participle of dividere (“to divide”)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /d??va?s/
• Rhymes: -a?s

Noun

device (plural devices)

1. Any piece of equipment made for a particular purpose, especially a mechanical or electrical one.
   • 1949. Geneva Convention on Road Traffic Chapter VI. Provisions Applicable to Cycles in International Traffic

     Every cycle shall be equipped with: [...] (b) an audible warning device consisting of a bell [...]
2. (computer hardware) A peripheral device; an item of hardware.
3. A project or scheme, often designed to deceive; a stratagem; an artifice.

   • His device is against Babylon, to destroy it.

   • He disappointeth the devices of the crafty, so that their hands cannot perform their enterprise.

   • 1827 Hallam, Henry, The English Constitution, Harper

     Their recent device of demanding benevolences.
4. (Ireland) An improvised explosive device, home-made bomb
   • 1979 Stiff Little Fingers, "Suspect Device":

     Inflammable material is planted in my head / It's a suspect device that's left 2000 dead

   • 2014 September 3, Cliodhna Russell, The Journal "A viable device was found in Cavan today, it has now been made safe"

     THE ARMY BOMB Disposal Team rendered safe a viable device in Cavan this afternoon.

   • 2014 August 3, Louise Kelly & Conor Feehan "Suspect device found at shopping centre revealed as hoax" Irish Independent

     The army bomb squad carried out two controlled explosions on the device. It was later found that the suspect device was a hoax and not a viable explosive.

5. (rhetoric) A technique that an author or speaker uses to evoke an emotional response in the audience; a rhetorical device.
7. (heraldry) A motto, emblem, or other mark used to distinguish the bearer from others. A device differs from a badge or cognizance primarily because as it is a personal distinction, and not a badge borne by members of the same house successively.
   • 1736. O'Callaghan, Edmund Bailey. The Documentary History of the State of New York Chapter I, Article III: Enumeration of the Indian Tribes.

     The devices of these savages are the serpent, the Deer, and the Small Acorn.

8. (archaic) Power of devising; invention; contrivance.
   • 1824. Landor, Walter Savage "King Henry IV and Sir Arnold Savage" from Imaginary Conversations of Literary Men and Statesmen, page 44

     Moreover I must have instruments of mine own device, weighty, and exceeding costly

   • 1976. The Eagles, "Hotel California"

     And she said,

     "We are all prisoners here,

     Of our own device"

9. (law) An image used in whole or in part as a trademark or service mark.
10. (printing) An image or logo denoting official or proprietary authority or provenience.
    • 1943 United States Post Office Department. A Description of United States Postage Stamps / Issued by the Post Office Department from July 1, 1847, to April 1, 1945 [sic], USGPO, Washington, p1:

      Prior to the issuance of the first stamps, letters accepted by postmasters for dispatch were marked "Paid" by means of pen and ink or hand stamps of various designs. [...] To facilitate the handling of mail matter, some postmasters provided special stamps or devices for use on letters as evidence of the prepayment of postage.

11. (obsolete) A spectacle or show.
12. (obsolete) Opinion; decision.

Synonyms

• (piece of equipment): apparatus, appliance, equipment, gadget, design, contrivance
• (project or scheme): scheme, project, stratagem, artifice
• (obsolete, power of devising): invention, contrivance

Hyponyms

Derived terms

Translations

Slovene

Noun

device

1. genitive singular of devica
2. nominative plural of devica
3. accusative plural of devica