Shift vs Drift - What's the difference?

In transitive terms the difference between shift and drift

is that shift is to dispose of while drift is to drive into heaps.

In intransitive terms the difference between shift and drift

is that shift is to hurry while drift is to accumulate in heaps by the force of wind; to be driven into heaps.

In mining terms the difference between shift and drift

is that shift is a breaking off and dislocation of a seam; a fault while drift is a passage driven or cut between shaft and shaft; a driftway; a small subterranean gallery; an adit or tunnel.

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

drift

English

Noun

(en noun)

(label) Movement; that which moves or is moved.

# (label) A driving; a violent movement.

#* 1332 , (King Alisaunder) (1332)

The dragon drew him [self] away with drift of his wings.

# Course or direction along which anything is driven; setting.

#* (Richard Hakluyt) (c.1552-1616)

Our drift was south.

# That which is driven, forced, or urged along.

#*{{quote-book, year=1892, author=(James Yoxall)

, chapter=5, title= The Lonely Pyramid , passage=The desert storm was riding in its strength; the travellers lay beneath the mastery of the fell simoom.

# Anything driven at random.

#* (John Dryden) (1631-1700)

Some loga useless drift .

# A mass of matter which has been driven or forced onward together in a body, or thrown together in a heap, etc., especially by wind or water.

#* (Alexander Pope) (1688-1744)

Drifts of rising dust involve the sky.

#* Kane

We got the brig a good bed in the rushing drift [of ice].

# The distance through which a current flows in a given time.

# A drove or flock, as of cattle, sheep, birds.

#* (Thomas Fuller) (1606-1661)

cattle coming over the bridge (with their great drift doing much damage to the high ways)

# A collection of loose earth and rocks, or boulders, which have been distributed over large portions of the earth's surface, especially in latitudes north of forty degrees, by the retreat of continental glaciers, such as that which buries former river valleys and creates young river valleys.

#* 1867 , E. Andrews, "Observations on the Glacial Drift beneath the bed of Lake Michigan," American Journal of Science and Arts? , vol. 43, nos. 127-129, page 75:

It is there seen that at a distance from the valleys of streams, the old glacial drift usually comes to the surface, and often rises into considerable eminences.

# Driftwood included in flotsam washed up onto the beach.

The act or motion of drifting; the force which impels or drives; an overpowering influence or impulse.

* (Robert South) (1634–1716)

A bad man, being under the drift of any passion, will follow the impulse of it till something interpose.

A place (a ford) along a river where the water is shallow enough to permit crossing to the opposite side.

The tendency of an act, argument, course of conduct, or the like; object aimed at or intended; intention; hence, also, import or meaning of a sentence or discourse; aim.

* 1977 , (w), (The Canterbury Tales) , Penguin Classics, p. 316:

'Besides, you lack the brains to catch my drift . / If I explained you wouldn't understand.'

* (Joseph Addison) (1672-1719)

He has made the drift of the whole poem a compliment on his country in general.

* Sir (Walter Scott) (1771-1832)

Now thou knowest my drift .

(architecture) The horizontal thrust or pressure of an arch or vault upon the abutments.

(Knight)

(label) A tool.

# A slightly tapered tool of steel for enlarging or shaping a hole in metal, by being forced or driven into or through it; a broach.

# A tool used in driving down compactly the composition contained in a rocket, or like firework.

A deviation from the line of fire, peculiar to oblong projectiles.

(label) A passage driven or cut between shaft and shaft; a driftway; a small subterranean gallery; an adit or tunnel.

(label) Movement.

# The angle which the line of a ship's motion makes with the meridian, in drifting.

# The distance to which a vessel is carried off from her desired course by the wind, currents, or other causes.

# The place in a deep-waisted vessel where the sheer is raised and the rail is cut off, and usually terminated with a scroll, or driftpiece.

# The distance between the two blocks of a tackle.

# The difference between the size of a bolt and the hole into which it is driven, or between the circumference of a hoop and that of the mast on which it is to be driven.

(label) A sideways movement of the ball through the air, when bowled by a spin bowler.

Derived terms

* driftage * driftal * drift-anchor * drift-bolt * drift-current * drift ice * driftland * driftless * drift-mining * drift-net * drift-sail * driftway * driftweed * driftwood * drifty

Verb

(en verb)

(label) To move slowly, especially pushed by currents of water, air, etc.

*, chapter=11

, title= Mr. Pratt's Patients , passage=One day I was out in the barn and he drifted in. I was currying the horse and he set down on the wheelbarrow and begun to ask questions.}}

(label) To move haphazardly without any destination.

(label) To deviate gently from the intended direction of travel.

* {{quote-news, year=2011, date=January 15, author=Saj Chowdhury, work=BBC

, title= Man City 4-3 Wolves , passage=Midway through the half, Argentine Tevez did begin to drift inside in order to exert his influence but by this stage Mick McCarthy's side had gone 1-0 up and looked comfortable.}}

(label) To drive or carry, as currents do a floating body.

(label) To drive into heaps.

(label) To accumulate in heaps by the force of wind; to be driven into heaps.

To make a drift; to examine a vein or ledge for the purpose of ascertaining the presence of metals or ores; to follow a vein; to prospect.

To enlarge or shape, as a hole, with a drift.

To oversteer a vehicle, causing loss of traction, while maintaining control from entry to exit of a corner. See .

Derived terms

* bedrift * drift along * drift apart * drift off