\Shiff\, v. i.
1. To divide; to distribute. [Obs.]
         Some this, some that, as that him liketh shift.
                                               --Chaucer.
2. To make a change or changes; to change position; to move;
   to veer; to substitute one thing for another; -- used in
   the various senses of the transitive verb.
         The sixth age shifts Into the lean and slippered
         pantaloon.                            --Shak.
         Here the Baillie shifted and fidgeted about in his
         seat.                                 --Sir W.
                                               Scott.
3. To resort to expedients for accomplishing a purpose; to
   contrive; to manage.
         Men in distress will look to themselves, and leave
         their companions to schift as well as they can.
                                               --L'Estrange.
4. To practice indirect or evasive methods.
         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.