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.
Shift (?), n. [Cf. Icel skipti. See Shift, v. t.] 1. The act of
shifting. Specifically: (a) The act of putting one thing in the place
of another, or of changing the place of a thing; change; substitution.
My going to Oxford was not merely for shift of air.
Sir H. Wotton.
(b) A turning from one thing to another; hence, an expedient tried in
difficulty; often, an evasion; a trick; a fraud. "Reduced to pitiable
shifts." Macaulay.