Key vs Shift - What's the difference?
key | shift |
An object designed to open and close a lock.
* , chapter=13
, title= An object designed to fit between two other objects (such as a shaft and a wheel) in a mechanism and maintain their relative orientation.
A crucial step or requirement.
* (John Locke) (1632-1705)
* (1809-1892)
A guide explaining the symbols or terminology of a map or chart; a legend.
A guide to the correct answers of a worksheet or test.
(label) One of several small, usually square buttons on a typewriter or computer keyboard, mostly corresponding to text characters.
(label) One of a number of rectangular moving parts on a piano or musical keyboard, each causing a particular sound or note to be produced.
(label) One of various levers on a musical instrument used to select notes, such as a lever opening a hole on a woodwind.
(label) A hierarchical scale of musical notes on which a composition is based.
* 1881 , R.L. Stevenson, :
(label) The general pitch or tone of a sentence or utterance.
* (William Cowper) (1731-1800)
(label) An indehiscent, one-seeded fruit furnished with a wing, such as the fruit of the ash and maple; a samara.
(label) A manual electrical switching device primarily used for the transmission of Morse code.
(label) A piece of information (e.g. a passphrase) used to encode or decode a message or messages.
(label) A password restricting access to an IRC channel.
* 2000 , "Robert Erdec", Re: Help; mIRC32; unable to resolve server arnes.si'' (on newsgroup ''alt.irc.mirc )
(label) In a relational database, a field used as an index into another table (not necessarily unique).
(label) A value that uniquely identifies an entry in an associative array.
(label) The free-throw lane together with the circle surrounding the free-throw line, the free-throw lane having formerly been narrower, giving the area the shape of a skeleton key hole.
(label) A series of logically organized groups of discriminating information which aims to allow the user to correctly identify a taxon.
(label) Kilogram (though this is more commonly shortened to kay ).
* 2010 , David J. Silas, Da Block (page 41)
(label) A piece of wood used as a wedge.
(label) The last board of a floor when laid down.
(label) A keystone.
That part of the plastering which is forced through between the laths and holds the rest in place.
(rail transport) A wooden support for a rail on the bullhead rail system.
(label) The object used to open or close a lock, often used as a heraldic charge.
Indispensable, supremely important.
* 2007 , Mark H. Moss, Shopping as an Entertainment Experience (page 46)
Important, salient.
* {{quote-book, year=2006, author=
, title=Internal Combustion
, chapter=2 * {{quote-news
, year=2011
, date=September 29
, author=Jon Smith
, title=Tottenham 3 - 1 Shamrock Rovers
, work=BBC Sport
To fit (a lock) with a key.
To fit (pieces of a mechanical assembly) with a key to maintain the orientation between them.
To mark or indicate with a symbol indicating membership in a class.
* 1996 January, Garden Dsign Ideas , second printing, (Taunton Press), ISBN 1561580791, page 25,
* 2001 , Bruce M. Metzger, The Bible in Translation , ISBN 0801022827, page 87,
* 2002 , Karen Bromley, Stretching Students' Vocabulary , ISBN 0439288398, page 12,
* 2007 , Stephen Blake Mettee, Michelle Doland and Doris Hall, compilers, The American Directory of Writer's Guidelines , 6th ("2007–2008") edition, ISBN 1884956580, page 757,
(telegraphy and radio telegraphy) To depress (a telegraph key).
(radio) To operate (the transmitter switch of a two-way radio).
(computing) (more usually to key in ) To enter (information) by typing on a keyboard or keypad.
(colloquial) To vandalize (a car, etc.) by scratching with an implement such as a key.
To link (as one might do with a key or legend).
* 1960 , Richard L. Masland, "Classification of the Epilepsies", in Epilepsia , volume 1, page 516,
* '>citation
* '>citation
(intransitive, biology, chiefly, taxonomy) To be identified as a certain taxon when using a key.
To fasten or secure firmly; to fasten or tighten with keys or wedges.
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= 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= To change position.
(obsolete) To change (one's clothes); also to change (someone's) underclothes.
*, II.ii.2:
* Shakespeare
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
To practice indirect or evasive methods.
* Sir Walter Raleigh
(historical) a type of women's undergarment, a slip
*
* '>citation
* 1919 ,
a change of workers, now specifically a set group of workers or period of working time
an act of shifting; a slight movement or change
* Sir H. Wotton
* {{quote-news, year=2012, date=November 7, author=Matt Bai, title=Winning a Second Term, Obama Will Confront Familiar Headwinds, work=New York Times
, 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
(computing) a bit shift
(baseball) The infield shift.
The act of sexual petting.
(archaic) A contrivance, device to try when other methods fail
* 1596 , Shakespeare, History of King John
(archaic) a trick, an artifice
* 1593 , Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew
* Macaulay
* Shakespeare
* Dryden
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.
As a proper noun key
is .As a noun shift is
(computing) a modifier key whose main function is shifting between two or more functions of any of certain other keys (usually by pressing shift and the other button simultaneously).key
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) keye, kaye, . For the semantic development, note that medieval keys were simply long poles (ending in a hook) with which a crossbar obstructing a door from the inside could be removed from the outside, by lifting it through a hole in the door.Noun
(en noun)Mr. Pratt's Patients, passage=We tiptoed into the house, up the stairs and along the hall into the room where the Professor had been spending so much of his time. 'Twas locked, of course, but the Deacon man got a big bunch of keys out of his pocket and commenced to putter with the lock.}}
- Those who are accustomed to reason have got the true key of books.
- who keeps the keys of all the creeds
- A girl, it is true, has always lived in a glass house among reproving relatives, whose word was law; she has been bred up to sacrifice her judgments and take the key submissively from dear papa; and it is wonderful how swiftly she can change her tune into the husband's.
- You fall at once into a lower key .
- if you know someone who is in the channel, you can query them and ask for the key .
- So starting with ten keys' of cocaine and two ' keys of heroin, Derrick put his plan in motion. Soon every major drug dealer and gang chief from Chicago Avenue to Evanston was in his pocket.
Derived terms
(Derived terms) * candidate key * card key * church key * foreign key * keyboard * keycard * key card * keychain, key chain * key fob, keyfob * keyhole * keynote * keypad * keyring, key ring * key signature * keystone * keystroke * keyword * major key * minor key * Morse key * primary key * public-key cryptography * skeleton key * unique keySee also
* clef * scale * (wikipedia "key") *Adjective
(en adjective)- He is the key player on his soccer team.
- Lukas intimates that one of Disney's key attractions was "Main Street USA,” which "mimicked a downtown business district just as Southdale" had done.
- She makes several key points.
citation, passage=Throughout the 1500s, the populace roiled over a constellation of grievances of which the forest emerged as a key focal point. The popular late Middle Ages fictional character Robin Hood, dressed in green to symbolize the forest, dodged fines for forest offenses and stole from the rich to give to the poor. But his appeal was painfully real and embodied the struggle over wood.}}
citation, page= , passage=With the north London derby to come at the weekend, Spurs boss Harry Redknapp opted to rest many of his key players, although he brought back Aaron Lennon after a month out through injury.}}
Usage notes
The first meaning is distinguished by the definite article, as seen in the quotations.Verb
(en verb)- So I worked on a tissue-paper copy of the perimeter plan, outlining groupings of plants of the same species and keying them with letters for the species.
- The volume closes with thirty pages of "Notes, critical and explanatory," in which Thomson provides seventy-six longer or shorter notes keyed to specific sections of the synopsis.
- Talk about similarities between the words and write them below to the left of the anchor, keying' them with a plus sign (+). Talk about the characteristics that set the words apart and list them below the box to the right, ' keying them with a tilde sign (~).
- Indicate the comparative value of each heading by keying it with a number in pencil, in the left margin, as follows:
- Our instructor told us to key in our user IDs.
- He keyed the car that had taken his parking spot.
- The American Heart Association has prepared their own guide to classification and, keying it with the Standard Nomenclature of Diseases , have done much to encourage a concise yet complete diagnosis.
- (Francis)
Derived terms
* key in * key off * key out * keyed upEtymology 2
Variant of cay, from (etyl) cayo.Alternative forms
* cayAnagrams
*Etymology 3
shift
English
(wikipedia shift)Verb
(en verb)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.}}
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.}}
- '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 […].
- As it were to ride day and night; andnot to have patience to shift me.
- Men in distress will look to themselves, and leave their companions to shift as well as they can.
- 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)- 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.
- Some wear black shifts and flesh-coloured stockings; some with curly hair, dyed yellow, are dressed like little girls in short muslin frocks.
- We'll work three shifts a day till the job's done.
- My going to Oxford was not merely for shift of air.
- There was a shift in the political atmosphere.
citation
- Does it come with a stick-shift ?
- If you press shift -P, the preview display will change.
- Teams often use the shift against this lefty.
- 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.
- 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
- Reduced to pitiable shifts .
- I'll find a thousand shifts to get away.
- Little souls on little shifts rely.