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shiff |
1 definition found From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: Shiff \Shiff\, v. i. 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.
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