4. To practice indirect or evasive methods. All those schoolmen, though they were exceeding witty, yet better teach all their followers to shift, than to resolve by their distinctions. Sir W. Raleigh.
5. (Naut.)
Defn: To slip to one side of a ship, so as to destroy the equilibrum; — said of ballast or cargo; as, the cargo shifted.
SHIFT
Shift, n. Etym: [Cf. Icel skipti. See Shift, v. t.]
1. The act of shifting. Specifically: (a) The act of putting one thing in the place of another, or of changing the place of a thing; change; substitution. My going to Oxford was not merely for shift of air. Sir H. Wotton. (b) A turning from one thing to another; hence, an expedient tried in difficalty; often, an evasion; a trick; a fraud. "Reduced to pitiable shifts." Macaulay. I 'll find a thousand shifts to get away. Shak. Little souls on little shifts rely. Dryden.
2. Something frequently shifted; especially, a woman's under-garment; a chemise.
3. The change of one set of workmen for another; hence, a spell, or turn, of work; also, a set of workmen who work in turn with other sets; as, a night shift.
4. In building, the extent, or arrangement, of the overlapping of plank, brick, stones, etc., that are placed in courses so as to break joints.
5. (Mining)
Defn: A breaking off and dislocation of a seam; a fault.