shiff Meaning, Definition & Usage

Shiff intransitive verb

Definitions

1. To divide; to distribute. Obs.

   Some this, some that, as that him liketh shift. Chaucer.

2. To make a change or changes; to change position; to move; to veer; to substitute one thing for another; -- used in the various senses of the transitive verb.

   The sixth age shifts Into the lean and slippered pantaloon. Shak.

   Here the Baillie shifted and fidgeted about in his seat. Sir W. Scott.

3. To resort to expedients for accomplishing a purpose; to contrive; to manage.

   Men in distress will look to themselves, and leave their companions to schift as well as they can. L'Estrange.

4. To practice indirect or evasive methods.

   All those schoolmen, though they were exceeding witty, yet better teach all their followers to shift, than to resolve by their distinctions. Sir W. Raleigh.

5. (Naut.) To slip to one side of a ship, so as to destroy the equilibrum; -- said of ballast or cargo; as, the cargo shifted.