What is the difference between early and shift?

As nouns the difference between early and shift

is that early is a shift (scheduled work period) that takes place early in the day while shift is a type of women's undergarment, a slip.

As an adjective early

is at a time in advance of the usual or expected event.

As an adverb early

is at a time before expected; sooner than usual.

As a verb shift is

to change, swap.

early

English

Adjective

(er)

At a time in advance of the usual or expected event.

* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-29, volume=407, issue=8842, page=28, magazine=(The Economist)

, title= High and wet , passage=Floods in northern India, mostly in the small state of Uttarakhand, have wrought disaster on an enormous scale. The early , intense onset of the monsoon on June 14th swelled rivers, washing away roads, bridges, hotels and even whole villages. Rock-filled torrents smashed vehicles and homes, burying victims under rubble and sludge.}}

Arriving a time before expected; sooner than on time.

Near the start or beginning.

, title= Mr. Pratt's Patients, chapter=1 , passage='Twas early June, the new grass was flourishing everywheres, the posies in the yard—peonies and such—in full bloom, the sun was shining, and the water of the bay was blue, with light green streaks where the shoal showed.}}

* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-20, volume=408, issue=8845, magazine=(The Economist)

, title= The attack of the MOOCs , passage=Dotcom mania was slow in coming to higher education, but now it has the venerable industry firmly in its grip. Since the launch early last year of Udacity and Coursera, two Silicon Valley start-ups offering free education through MOOCs, massive open online courses, the ivory towers of academia have been shaken to their foundations.}}

Having begun to occur; in its early stages.

Synonyms

* (at a time in advance of the usual): premature * (near the start): first

Antonyms

* (at a time in advance of the usual): late * : terminal

Derived terms

(Derived terms) * earliness * early bath * early bird/the early bird catches the worm * early doors * early grave * early innings * earlyish * Early Latin * early modern * early music * early on * early purple orchid * early retirement * early spider orchid * early syphilis * * early warning radar * early winter cress * early withdrawal * nice and early

Adverb

(er)

At a time before expected; sooner than usual.

, title=(The Celebrity), chapter=4 , passage=No matter how early I came down, I would find him on the veranda, smoking cigarettes, or otherwise his man would be there with a message to say that his master would shortly join me if I would kindly wait.}}

Soon; in good time; seasonably.

* Bible, Proverbs viii. 17

Those that seek me early shall find me.

You must wake and call me early .

Synonyms

* prematurely

Antonyms

* late, tardily

Noun

(earlies)

A shift (scheduled work period) that takes place early in the day.

* 2007 , Paul W. Browning, The Good Guys Wear Blue (page 193)

On my first day on the watch after leaving the shoplifting squad I paraded on earlies but had completely forgotten to take my ear ring off.

Statistics

Anagrams

* * 1000 English basic words

shift

English

(wikipedia shift)

Verb

(en verb)

To change, swap.

* {{quote-magazine, date=2012-03, author=William E. Carter, Merri Sue Carter

, volume=100, issue=2, page=87, magazine=(American Scientist) , title= The British Longitude Act Reconsidered , passage=But was it responsible governance to pass the Longitude Act without other efforts to protect British seamen? Or might it have been subterfuge—a disingenuous attempt to shift attention away from the realities of their life at sea.}}

To move from one place to another; to redistribute.

* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-22, volume=407, issue=8841, page=68, magazine=(The Economist)

, title= T time , passage=The ability to shift profits to low-tax countries by locating intellectual property in them, which is then licensed to related businesses in high-tax countries, is often assumed to be the preserve of high-tech companies. […] current tax rules make it easy for all sorts of firms to generate […] “stateless income”: profit subject to tax in a jurisdiction that is neither the location of the factors of production that generate the income nor where the parent firm is domiciled.}}

To change position.

(obsolete) To change (one's clothes); also to change (someone's) underclothes.

*, 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 […].

* Shakespeare

As it were to ride day and night; andnot to have patience to shift me.

To change gears (in a car).

(typewriters) To move the keys of a typewriter over in order to type capital letters and special characters.

(computer keyboards) To switch to a character entry mode for capital letters and special characters.

(computing) To manipulate a binary number by moving all of its digits left or right; compare rotate.

(computing) To remove the first value from an array.

To dispose of.

To hurry.

(Ireland, vulgar, slang) To engage in sexual petting.

To resort to expedients for accomplishing a purpose; to contrive; to manage.

* L'Estrange

Men in distress will look to themselves, and leave their companions to shift as well as they can.

To practice indirect or evasive methods.

* Sir Walter Raleigh

All those schoolmen, though they were exceeding witty, yet better teach all their followers to shift , than to resolve by their distinctions.

Noun

(en noun)

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

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

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.

* '>citation

* 1919 ,

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

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.

an act of shifting; a slight movement or change

* Sir H. Wotton

My going to Oxford was not merely for shift of air.

There was a shift in the political atmosphere.

* {{quote-news, year=2012, date=November 7, author=Matt Bai, title=Winning a Second Term, Obama Will Confront Familiar Headwinds, work=New York Times citation

, passage=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.}}

(US) the gear mechanism in a motor vehicle

Does it come with a stick-shift ?

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

(computing) a bit shift

(baseball) The infield shift.

Teams often use the shift against this lefty.

The act of sexual petting.

(archaic) A contrivance, 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.

(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

* Macaulay

Reduced to pitiable shifts .

* Shakespeare

I'll find a thousand shifts to get away.

* Dryden

Little souls on little shifts rely.

In building, the extent, or arrangement, of the overlapping of plank, brick, stones, etc., that are placed in courses so as to break joints.

(mining) A breaking off and dislocation of a seam; a fault.

Derived terms

* blueshift * day shift * graveyard shift * make shift * night shift * preshift * shift break * shiftwork, shift work * split shift * swing shift * stickshift * redshift * (French kissing) get the shift