different between conduct vs shift

English

Etymology

From Late Latin conductus (“defense, escort”), from Latin conductus, perfect passive participle of cond?c? (“bring together”); see also conduce. Doublet of conduit.

Pronunciation

• (noun)
  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?k?nd?kt/
  • (US) enPR: k?n'd?kt, IPA^(key): /?k?nd?kt/
• (verb)
  • enPR: k?nd?kt', IPA^(key): /k?n?d?kt/
• Rhymes: -?kt

Noun

conduct (countable and uncountable, plural conducts)

1. The act or method of controlling or directing
   • 1785, William Paley, The Principles of Moral and Political Philosophy

     There are other restrictions imposed upon the conduct of war, not by the law of nature primarily, but by the laws of war first, and by the law of nature as seconding and ratifying the laws of war.

   • 1843, Henry Brougham, Political Philosophy

     the conduct of the state, the administration of its affairs, its policy, and its laws, are for more uncertain

2. Skillful guidance or management; leadership
   • 1722 (first printed) Edmund Waller, Poems, &c. written upon several occasions, and to several persons

     Conduct of armies is a prince's art.

   • 1769, William Robertson, The history of the reign of Emperor Charles V

     […] attacked the Spaniards […] with great impetuosity, but with so little conduct, that his forces were totally routed.

   • 1841, Charles Dickens, Barnaby Rudge Chapter 49

     At the head of that division which had Westminster Bridge for its approach to the scene of action, Lord George Gordon took his post; with Gashford at his right hand, and sundry ruffians, of most unpromising appearance, forming a kind of staff about him. The conduct of a second party, whose route lay by Blackfriars, was entrusted to a committee of management

3. behaviour; the manner of behaving

   Good conduct will be rewarded and likewise poor conduct will be punished.

   • 1840, James Fenimore Cooper, The Pathfinder

     when she came to recall the affectionate and natural manner of the young Indian girl, and all the evidences of good faith and sincerity she had seen in her conduct during the familiar intercourse of their journey, she rejected the idea with the unwillingness of a generous disposition to believe ill of others

   • 1848, Thomas Macaulay, The History of England from the Accession of James II

     All these difficulties were increased by the conduct of Shrewsbury.

   • 1711, John Dryden, Tenth Satire (translation from Latin of Juvenal)

     What in the conduct of our life appears / So well designed, so luckily begun, / But when we have our wish, we wish undone?

4. (of a literary work) plot; storyline
   • c. 1800, Thomas Macaulay, Essays, critical and miscellaneous

     The book of Job, indeed, in conduct and diction, bears a considerable resemblance to some of his dramas.

5. (obsolete) convoy; escort; person who accompanies another
   • 1599, Ben Jonson, Every Man out of His Humour

     I will be your conduct.
6. (archaic) Something which carries or conveys anything; a channel; an instrument.

Synonyms

• (act or method of controlling or directing): control, guidance, management
• (manner of guiding or carrying oneself): bearing, behavior/behaviour, deportment, demeanor/demeanour,
• (plot of a literary work): action, plot, storyline

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

conduct (third-person singular simple present conducts, present participle conducting, simple past and past participle conducted)

1. (archaic, transitive) To lead, or guide; to escort.
   • 1634, John Milton, Comus

     I can conduct you, lady, to a low / But loyal cottage, where you may be safe.

2. (transitive) To lead; to direct; to be in charge of (people or tasks)

   The commander conducted thousands of troops.

   to conduct the affairs of a kingdom

   • 1856-1858, William Hickling Prescott, History of the Reign of Phillip II

     the Turks, however efficient they may have been in field operations, had little skill as engineers, and no acquaintance with the true principles of conducting a siege

3. (transitive) (reflexively to conduct oneself) To behave.

   He conducted himself well.

4. (transitive) To serve as a medium for conveying; to transmit (heat, light, electricity, etc.)
   • 1975, Clive M. Countryman, Heat-Its Role in Wildland Fire Part 2

     Water and many other liquids do not conduct heat well. Wildland fuels in general, wood, and wood products conduct heat slowly, and so do soil and rocks.

5. (transitive, music) To direct, as the leader in the performance of a musical composition.
   • 2006, Michael R. Waters with Mark Long and William Dickens, Lone Star Stalag: German Prisoners of War at Camp Hearne

     For a while, Walter Pohlmann, a well-known German conductor, conducted the orchestra in Compound 3. Later, Willi Mets, who had conducted the world-renowned Leipzig Symphony Orchestra, conducted the Compound 3 orchestra.

6. (intransitive) To act as a conductor (as of heat, electricity, etc.); to carry.
7. (transitive) To carry out (something organized)

Synonyms

• (lead or guide): accompany, escort, guide, lead, steer, belead
• (direct): direct, lead, manage, oversee, run, supervise, belead
• (reflexively: to behave): act, behave, carry on
• (to serve as a medium for conveying): carry, convey, transmit

Derived terms

Translations

English

Etymology

From Middle English schiften, from Old English s?iftan (“to divide, separate into shares; appoint, ordain; arrange, organise”), from Proto-Germanic *skiftijan?, *skiptijan?, from earlier *skipatjan? (“to organise, put in order”), from Proto-Indo-European *skeyb- (“to separate, divide, part”), from Proto-Indo-European *skey- (“to cut, divide, separate, part”). Cognate with Scots schift, skift (“to shift”), West Frisian skifte, skiftsje (“to sort”), Dutch schiften (“to sort, screen, winnow, part”), German schichten (“to stack, layer”), Swedish skifta (“to shift, change, exchange, vary”), Norwegian skifte (“to shift”), Icelandic skipta (“to switch”). See ship.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American, Canada) enPR: sh?ft, IPA^(key): /??ft/
• (Canada)
• Rhymes: -?ft

Noun

shift (countable and uncountable, plural shifts)

1. (historical) A type of women's undergarment, a slip.

   Just last week she bought a new shift at the market.

   • 1919, W. Somerset Maugham, The Moon and Sixpence, chapter 47

     Some wear black shifts and flesh-coloured stockings; some with curly hair, dyed yellow, are dressed like little girls in short muslin frocks.

2. A change of workers, now specifically a set group of workers or period of working time.

   We'll work three shifts a day till the job's done.

3. An act of shifting; a slight movement or change.

   There was a shift in the political atmosphere.

   • c. 1620-1626, Henry Wotton, letter to Nicholas Pey

     My going to Oxford was not merely for shift of air.
4. (US) The gear mechanism in a motor vehicle.

   Does it come with a stick-shift?

5. Alternative spelling of Shift (“a modifier button of computer keyboards”).

   If you press shift-P, the preview display will change.

6. (computing) A bit shift.
7. (baseball) The infield shift.

   Teams often use the shift against this lefty.

8. (Ireland, crude slang, often with the definite article, usually uncountable) The act of kissing passionately.
9. (archaic) A contrivance, a device to try when other methods fail.
   • 1596, Shakespeare, History of King John

     If I get down, and do not break my limbs,

     I'll find a thousand shifts to get away:

     As good to die and go, as die and stay.

10. (archaic) A trick, an artifice.
    • 1593, Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew

      And if the boy have not a woman's gift

      To rain a shower of commanded tears,

      An onion will do well for such a shift

    • Little souls on little shifts rely.

11. (construction) The extent, or arrangement, of the overlapping of plank, brick, stones, etc., that are placed in courses so as to break joints.
12. (mining) A breaking off and dislocation of a seam; a fault.
13. (genetics) A mutation in which the DNA or RNA from two different sources (such as viruses or bacteria) combine.
14. (music) In violin-playing, any position of the left hand except that nearest the nut.

Hyponyms

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

shift (third-person singular simple present shifts, present participle shifting, simple past and past participle shifted)

1. (transitive, sometimes figuratively) To move from one place to another; to redistribute.
2. (transitive, figuratively) To change in form or character; swap.
   • 2008, June Granatir Alexander, Ethnic Pride, American Patriotism (page ix)

     As a result, I shifted my approach to focus on group-generated activities and broadened the chronological time frame.

3. (intransitive) To change position.

4. (intransitive, India) To change residence; to leave and live elsewhere.

   Synonym: move

5. (obsolete, transitive) To change (clothes, especially underwear).
   • , II.ii.2:

     'Tis very good to wash his hands and face often, to shift his clothes, to have fair linen about him, to be decently and comely attired […].

6. (obsolete, transitive, reflexive) To change (someone's) clothes; sometimes specifically, to change underwear.
   • c. 1597, William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part 2, Act V, Scene 5,^[3]

     As it were, to ride day and night; and […] not to have patience to shift me.

   • 1751, Tobias Smollett, The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle, I.21:

     The first thing he did was to secure a convenient lodging at the inn where he dined; then he shifted himself, and according to the direction he had received, went to the house of Mrs. Gauntlet […] .

7. (intransitive) To change gears (in a car).

8. (typewriters) To move the keys of a typewriter over in order to type capital letters and special characters.
9. (computer keyboards) To switch to a character entry mode for capital letters and special characters.
10. (transitive, computing) To manipulate a binary number by moving all of its digits left or right; compare rotate.

11. (transitive, computing) To remove the first value from an array.
12. (transitive) To dispose of.

13. (intransitive) To hurry; to move quickly.
14. (Ireland, vulgar, slang) To engage in sexual petting.
15. (archaic) To resort to expedients for accomplishing a purpose; to contrive; to manage.
    • 1692, Roger L’Estrange, Fables of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists with Morals and Reflexions, London: R. Sare et al., Fable 83, Reflexion, p. 81,^[4]

      […] men in distress will look to themselves in the First Place, and leave their Companions to Shift as well as they can.

    • 1743, Robert Drury, The Pleasant, and Surprizing Adventures of Mr. Robert Drury, during his Fifteen Years Captivity on the Island of Madagascar, London, p. 112,^[5]

      My Fellow-Slaves were […] as courteous to me as I could well-expect; and as they had Plantations of their own, they gave me […] such Victuals as they had; especially on dark Nights, and at such Times as I could not shift for myself.

16. To practice indirect or evasive methods.
    • 1614, Walter Raleigh, History of the World, London: Walter Burre, Part 1, Chapter 3, Section 7, p. 45,^[6]

      But this I dare auow of all those Schoole-men, that though they were exceeding wittie, yet they better teach all their Followers to shift, then to resolue, by their distinctions.

17. (music) In violin-playing, to move the left hand from its original position next to the nut.

Synonyms

• (to change, swap): interchange, swap; See also Thesaurus:switch
• (to move from one place to another): relocate, transfer; See also Thesaurus:move
• (to change position): reposition
• (to dispose of): get rid of, remove; See also Thesaurus:junk
• (to hurry): hasten, rush; See also Thesaurus:rush
• (to engage in sexual petting): fondle, grope; see also Thesaurus:fondle

Antonyms

• (computing): unshift

Derived terms

• ever-shifting, evershifting
• preshift
• unshift

Translations

Portuguese

Noun

shift m (plural shifts)

1. shift (button on a keyboard)