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.

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.