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Shift vs Pull - What's the difference?

shift | pull |

As nouns the difference between shift and pull

is that 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) while pull is an act of pulling (applying force).

As a verb pull is

to apply a force to (an object) so that it comes toward the person or thing applying the force.

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

    pull

    English

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • to apply a force to (an object) so that it comes toward the person or thing applying the force
  • * Bible, Genesis viii. 9
  • He put forth his hand and pulled her in.
  • * Shakespeare
  • Ne'er pull your hat upon your brows.
  • To gather with the hand, or by drawing toward oneself; to pluck.
  • to pull''' fruit from a tree; to '''pull''' flax; to '''pull a finch
  • to apply a force such that an object comes toward the person or thing applying the force
  • You're going to have to pull harder to get that cork out of the bottle.
  • To attract or net; to pull in.
  • * Marcella Ridlen Ray, Changing and Unchanging Face of United States Civil Society
  • Television, a favored source of news and information, pulls the largest share of advertising monies.
  • To draw apart; to tear; to rend.
  • * Bible, Lam. iii. 11
  • He hath turned aside my ways, and pulled me in pieces; he hath made me desolate.
  • (ambitransitive, UK, Ireland, slang) to persuade (someone) to have sex with one
  • I pulled at the club last night.
    He's pulled that bird over there.
  • to remove (something), especially from public circulation or availability
  • Each day, they pulled the old bread and set out fresh loaves.
  • (informal) to do or perform
  • He regularly pulls 12-hour days, sometimes 14.
    You'll be sent home if you pull another stunt like that.
  • to retrieve or generate for use
  • I'll have to pull a part number for that.
  • * 2006 , Michael Bellomo, Joel Elad, How to Sell Anything on Amazon...and Make a Fortune!
  • They'll go through their computer system and pull a report of all your order fulfillment records for the time period you specify.
  • to toss a frisbee with the intention of launching the disc across the length of a field
  • to row
  • * 1874 , (Marcus Clarke), (For the Term of His Natural Life) Chapter VI
  • It had been a sort of race hitherto, and the rowers, with set teeth and compressed lips, had pulled stroke for stroke.
  • To strain (a muscle, tendon, ligament, etc.).
  • (video games, ambitransitive) To draw (a hostile non-player character) into combat, or toward or away from some location or target.
  • * 2003 April 9, "Richard Lawson" (username), " Monual's Willful Ignorance", in alt.games.everquest, Usenet:
  • …we had to clear a long hallway, run up half way, pull the boss mob to us, and engage.
  • * 2004 October 18, "Stush" (username), " Re: focus pull", in alt.games.dark-age-of-camelot, Usenet:
  • Basically buff pet, have it pull lots of mobs, shield pet, chain heal pet, have your aoe casters finish off hurt mobs once pet gets good aggro.
  • * 2005 August 2, "Brian" (username), " Re: How to tank Stratholme undead pulls?", in alt.games.warcraft, Usenet:
  • This is the only thing that should get you to break off from your position, is to pull something off the healer.
  • * 2007 April 10, "John Salerno" (username), " Re: Managing the Command Buttons", in alt.games.warcraft, Usenet:
  • You could also set a fire trap, pull the mob toward it, then send in your pet….
  • * 2008 August 18, "Mark (newsgroups)" (username), " Re: I'm a priest now!", in alt.games.warcraft, Usenet:
  • Shield yourself, pull' with Mind Blast if you want, or merely ' pull with SW:P to save mana, then wand, fear if you need to, but use the lowest rank fear.
  • to score a certain amount of points in a sport.
  • * How many points did you pull today, Albert?
  • (horse-racing) To hold back, and so prevent from winning.
  • The favourite was pulled .
  • (printing, dated) To take or make (a proof or impression); so called because hand presses were worked by pulling a lever.
  • (cricket) To strike the ball in a particular manner. (See noun sense.)
  • * R. H. Lyttelton
  • Never pull a straight fast ball to leg.
  • (UK, slang) To pour beer from a pump, keg, or other source.
  • Let's stop at Finnigan's. The barkeep ''pulls'' a good pint.

    Synonyms

    * drag, tow, tug, yank * score * (to remove from circulation) recall, withdraw, yank * (sense) carry out, complete, do, execute, perform * (to retrieve or generate for use) generate, get, get hold of, get one's hands on, lay one's hands on, obtain, retrieve * score

    Antonyms

    * push, repel, shove

    Derived terms

    See also pulling * it's not the whistle that pulls the train * overpull * pull a... * pull about * pull a face * pull a fast one * pull ahead * pull away * pull back * pull down * pull for * pull in * pulling * pull in one's horns * pull off * pull oneself together * pull one's weight * pull out * pull out all the stops * pull out of the fire * pull over * pull-quote * pull rank * pull round * pull somebody's leg * pull the other one * * pull the wool over someone's eyes * pull through * pull together * pull up

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • An act of pulling (applying force)
  • He gave the hair a sharp pull and it came out.
  • * Jonathan Swift
  • I awakened with a violent pull upon the ring which was fastened at the top of my box.
  • An attractive force which causes motion towards the source
  • The spaceship came under the pull of the gas giant.
    iron fillings drawn by the pull of a magnet
    She took a pull on her cigarette.
  • Any device meant to be pulled, as a lever, knob, handle, or rope
  • a zipper pull
  • (slang, dated) Something in one's favour in a comparison or a contest; an advantage; means of influencing.
  • In weights the favourite had the pull .
  • Appeal or attraction (as of a movie star)
  • (Internet, uncountable) The situation where a client sends out a request for data from a server, as in server pull'', ''pull technology
  • A journey made by rowing
  • * 1874 , (Marcus Clarke), (For the Term of His Natural Life) Chapter V
  • As Blunt had said, the burning ship lay a good twelve miles from the Malabar, and the pull was a long and a weary one. Once fairly away from the protecting sides of the vessel that had borne them thus far on their dismal journey, the adventurers seemed to have come into a new atmosphere.
  • (dated) A contest; a struggle.
  • a wrestling pull
    (Carew)
  • (obsolete, poetic) Loss or violence suffered.
  • * Shakespeare
  • Two pulls at once; / His lady banished, and a limb lopped off.
  • (slang) The act of drinking.
  • to take a pull at a mug of beer
    (Charles Dickens)
  • (cricket) A kind of stroke by which a leg ball is sent to the off side, or an off ball to the side.
  • * R. A. Proctor
  • The pull is not a legitimate stroke, but bad cricket.

    Synonyms

    * (act of pulling) tug, yank * (attractive force) attraction * (device meant to be pulled) handle, knob, lever, rope * (influence) influence, sway

    Antonyms

    * (act of pulling) push, shove * (attractive force) repulsion * (device meant to be pulled) button, push, push button * (influence)

    Derived terms

    * on the pull * pull cord * ring-pull