switches

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of switch.

   The control room walls were covered with rows of switches and dials.

   Old railway switches had to be thrown by hand to redirect the trains.

   Note

   A plural that adds a whole syllable: because switch ends in the "ch" sound, the ending is spelled -es and said as an extra /ɪz/. It covers every noun use, from banks of electrical switches to the command-line switches that set a program's options and the slender rods once used for whipping. On US and Philippine railroads, switches are the movable track sections also called points. The same spelling is also the present-tense verb.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of switch.

   The factory switches to its night shift at ten each evening.

   Whenever the topic turns to politics, she switches the conversation to something lighter.

   Note

   This is the form that goes with he, she or it, and it works with or without an object: she switches the lamp on, the factory switches to nights. In slang it can stand alone for sudden anger, as in "when he hears that, he switches." It shares its spelling and sound with the noun plural, so only the sentence shows whether switches names a thing or an action.

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