shifting

shifting
    adj 1: continuously varying; "taffeta with shifting colors"
    2: changing position or direction; "he drifted into the shifting
       crowd"; "their nervous shifting glances"; "shifty winds"
       [syn: {shifting}, {shifty}]
    3: (of soil) unstable; "shifting sands"; "unfirm earth" [syn:
       {shifting}, {unfirm}]
    n 1: the act of moving from one place to another; "his constant
         shifting disrupted the class" [syn: {shift}, {shifting}]
    

Shift \Shift\ (sh[i^]ft), v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Shifted}; p. pr.
   & vb. n. {Shifting}.] [OE. shiften, schiften, to divide,
   change, remove. AS. sciftan to divide; akin to LG. & D.
   schiften to divide, distinguish, part Icel. skipta to divide,
   to part, to shift, to change, Dan skifte, Sw. skifta, and
   probably to Icel. sk[imac]fa to cut into slices, as n., a
   slice, and to E. shive, sheave, n., shiver, n.]
   1. To divide; to distribute; to apportion. [Obs.]
      [1913 Webster]

            To which God of his bounty would shift
            Crowns two of flowers well smelling.  --Chaucer.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. To change the place of; to move or remove from one place
      to another; as, to shift a burden from one shoulder to
      another; to shift the blame.
      [1913 Webster]

            Hastily he schifte him[self].         --Piers
                                                  Plowman.
      [1913 Webster]

            Pare saffron between the two St. Mary's days,
            Or set or go shift it that knowest the ways.
                                                  --Tusser.
      [1913 Webster]

   3. To change the position of; to alter the bearings of; to
      turn; as, to shift the helm or sails.
      [1913 Webster]

            Carrying the oar loose, [they] shift it hither and
            thither at pleasure.                  --Sir W.
                                                  Raleigh.
      [1913 Webster]

   4. To exchange for another of the same class; to remove and
      to put some similar thing in its place; to change; as, to
      shift the clothes; to shift the scenes.
      [1913 Webster]

            I would advise you to shift a shirt.  --Shak.
      [1913 Webster]

   5. To change the clothing of; -- used reflexively. [Obs.]
      [1913 Webster]

            As it were to ride day and night; and . . . not to
            have patience to shift me.            --Shak.
      [1913 Webster]

   6. To put off or out of the way by some expedient. "I shifted
      him away." --Shak.
      [1913 Webster]

   {To shift off}, to delay; to defer; to put off; to lay aside.
      

   {To shift the scene}, to change the locality or the
      surroundings, as in a play or a story.
      [1913 Webster]

            Shift the scene for half an hour;
            Time and place are in thy power.      --Swift.
      [1913 Webster]
    

Shifting \Shift"ing\, a.
   1. Changing in place, position, or direction; varying;
      variable; fickle; as, shifting winds; shifting opinions or
      principles.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. Adapted or used for shifting anything.
      [1913 Webster]

   {Shifting backstays} (Naut.), temporary stays that have to be
      let go whenever the vessel tacks or jibes.

   {Shifting ballast}, ballast which may be moved from one side
      of a vessel to another as safety requires.

   {Shifting center}. See {Metacenter}.

   {Shifting locomotive}. See {Switching engine}, under
      {Switch}.
      [1913 Webster]
    

227 Moby Thesaurus words for "shifting":
      aberrancy, aberrant, aberration, aberrative, adrift, afloat,
      alternating, alternation, amorphous, bend, bias, bickering,
      boggling, branching off, capricious, captiousness, caviling,
      changeable, changeful, chicane, chicanery, circuitous,
      circuitousness, circumforaneous, corner, crook, curve, dangerous,
      declination, departing, departure, desultory, detour, deviable,
      deviance, deviancy, deviant, deviating, deviation, deviative,
      deviatory, devious, deviousness, digression, digressive,
      discursion, discursive, divagation, divagatory, divarication,
      divergence, diversion, dizzy, dodging, dogleg, double, drift,
      drifting, eccentric, equivocation, errant, errantry, erratic,
      evasion, excursion, excursive, excursus, exorbitation,
      fast and loose, fencing, fickle, fitful, flickering, flighty,
      flitting, floating, fluctuating, fluctuation, footloose,
      footloose and fancy-free, freakish, fugitive, gadding, giddy,
      gypsy-like, gypsyish, hairpin, hairsplitting, hazardous, hedging,
      impetuous, impulsive, inconsistent, inconstant, indecisive,
      indirect, indirection, infirm, insecure, insubstantial, irregular,
      irresolute, irresponsible, labyrinthine, landloping,
      logic-chopping, mazy, meandering, mercurial, migrational,
      migratory, moody, nit-picking, nomad, nomadic, obliquity,
      oscillation, out-of-the-way, paltering, parrying, pendulation,
      pererration, perilous, pettifoggery, planetary, precarious,
      prevarication, provisional, pussyfooting, quibbling, rambling,
      ranging, restless, risky, roaming, roving, scatterbrained,
      seesawing, serpentine, shaky, shapeless, sheer, shift,
      shifting course, shifting path, shifty, shuffling, sidestepping,
      skew, slant, slippery, snaky, spasmodic, spineless, straggling,
      stray, straying, strolling, subterfuge, sweep, swerve, swerving,
      swinging, tack, teeter-tottering, teetering, temporary, tentative,
      tergiversation, ticklish, tottering, traipsing, transient,
      transitory, transmigratory, treacherous, trichoschistism, turn,
      turning, twist, twisting, unaccountable, uncertain, uncontrolled,
      undependable, undirected, undisciplined, unfaithworthy, unfixed,
      unpredictable, unreliable, unrestrained, unsettled, unsolid,
      unsound, unstable, unstable as water, unstaid, unsteadfast,
      unsteady, unsubstantial, unsure, untrustworthy, vacillating,
      vacillation, vagabond, vagrant, variable, variation, veer, veering,
      vicissitude, vicissitudinary, vicissitudinous, volatile, wandering,
      wanton, warp, wavering, wavery, wavy, wayward, whimsical, winding,
      wishy-washy, yaw, zigzag