shifts

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of shift.

   Nurses on the ward rotate between day and night shifts.

   Economists tracked the subtle shifts in consumer spending.

   Note

   One spelling, two jobs: the noun plural here, and the verb's present-tense form in "she shifts her weight." As a noun it gathers very different things: slight movements or changes, set periods of work (day and night shifts), and, in historical writing, women's dress-length undergarments, the chemise sense. A loose, straight-hanging dress is also still called a shift. Context, not form, tells them apart.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present indicative of shift.

   The driver shifts into a lower gear before the steep climb.

   Public opinion shifts quickly once a scandal breaks.

   Note

   The -s form the verb takes after he, she, it or a singular noun. Every other present-tense subject takes bare shift. The verb works in both directions: someone shifts the load, or the load shifts by itself, and opinion shifts without anyone shifting it. In Indian English, a family that shifts has moved house.

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