Duty vs Shift - What's the difference?
duty | shift |
That which one is morally or legally obligated to do.
:
*1805 , 21 October,
*:England expects that every man will do his duty .
*
*:Captain Edward Carlisle; he could not tell what this prisoner might do. He cursed the fate which had assigned such a duty , cursed especially that fate which forced a gallant soldier to meet so superb a woman as this under handicap so hard.
*{{quote-book, year=1959, author=(Georgette Heyer), title=(The Unknown Ajax), chapter=1
, passage=Charles had not been employed above six months at Darracott Place, but he was not such a whopstraw as to make the least noise in the performance of his duties when his lordship was out of humour.}}
*{{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-10, volume=408, issue=8848, magazine=(The Economist), author=Lexington
, title= A period of time spent at work or doing a particular task.
:
Describing a workload as to its idle, working and de-energized periods.
A tax placed on imports or exports; a tariff.
(lb) One's due, something one is owed; a debt or fee.
*1526 , (William Tyndale), trans. Bible , (w) XX:
*:Take that which is thy duty , and goo thy waye.
(lb) Respect; reverence; regard; act of respect; homage.
*(William Shakespeare) (c.1564–1616)
*:my duty to you
The efficiency of an engine, especially a steam pumping engine, as measured by work done by a certain quantity of fuel; usually, the number of pounds of water lifted one foot by one bushel of coal (94 lbs. old standard), or by 1 cwt. (112 lbs., England, or 100 lbs., United States).
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 an adjective duty
is hollow (having an empty space inside).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).duty
English
Noun
(duties)Keeping the mighty honest, passage=British journalists shun complete respectability, feeling a duty to be ready to savage the mighty, or rummage through their bins. Elsewhere in Europe, government contracts and subsidies ensure that press barons will only defy the mighty so far.}}
Usage notes
* Adjectives often used with "duty": public, private, moral, legal, social, double, civic, contractual, political, judicial, etc.Synonyms
* (that which one is obligated to do) obligationAntonyms
* duty-free (taxes) * (that which one is obligated to do) rightDerived terms
* active duty * chimney-duty * civic duty * death duty * Delivered Duty Paid * Delivered Duty Unpaid * dutiable * dutiful * duty-bound * duty calls * duty cycle * duty of care * estate duty * excise duty * export duty * fatigue duty * fiduciary duty * filial duty * heavy-duty * import duty * jury duty * legal duty * light-duty * line of duty * neglect duty * on duty * off duty * point duty * sea duty/sea-duty * shore duty * stamp duty * succession duty * tonnage duty * tour of dutyStatistics
*External links
* * * 1000 English basic words ----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.