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prit, topmast, and standing rigging, while those of a cutter are capable of being readily shifted. The sloop usually carries a centerboard, and depends for stability upon breadth of beam rather than depth of keel. The two types have rapidly approximated since 1880. One radical distinction is that a slop may carry a cen…

A woman's under-garment; a shift; a chemise. In her smock, with head and foot all bare. Chaucer.

elm; as, the boat steers easily. Where the wind Veers oft, as oft [a ship] so steers, and shifts her sail. Milton.

loyed to escape censure or the force of an argument, or to justify opinions or conduct; a shift; an evasion. Affect not little shifts and subterfuges, to avoid the force of an argument. I. Watts. By a miserable subterfuge, they hope to render this position safe by rendering it nugatory. Burke.

A mechanical device for shifting an electric current to another circuit. Safety switch (Railways), a form of switch contrived to prevent or lessen the danger of derailment of trains. -- Switch back (Railways), an arrangement of tracks whereby elevations otherwise insurmountable are passed. The track ascends by a serie…

change the direction of (a vessel) when sailing closehauled, by putting the helm alee and shifting the tacks and sails so that she will proceed to windward nearly at right angles to her former course.

To shift; to practice evasion; to use subterfuges; to shuffle. [R.] Bailey.

The act of tergiversating; a shifting; shift; subterfuge; evasion. Writing is to be preferred before verbal conferences, as being freer from passions and tergiversations. Abp. Bramhall.

s of small cups or thimbles, and a pea or small ball placed under one of them and quickly shifted to another, the victim laying a wager that he knows under which cup it is; hence, to cheat by any trick.

ilroad) A platform with one or more tracks, and arranged to move laterally on wheels, for shifting cars, etc., from one line of track to another.

st, and results or returns to him who raised it, after such expiration. -- Secondary, or Shifting, use, a use which, though executed, may change from one to another by circumstances. Blackstone. -- Statute of uses (Eng. Law), the stat. 27 Henry VIII., cap. 10, which transfers uses into possession, or which unites the…

ove one way and the other; to reel or stagger; to waver. [A spheroid] is always liable to shift and vacillatefrom one axis to another. Paley.

A shifting wind, or one that varies in force. (b) pl.

To change direction; to turn; to shift; as, wind veers to the west or north. "His veering gait." Wordsworth. And as he leads, the following navy veers. Dryden. an ordinary community which is hostile or friendly as passion or as interest may veer about. Burke. To veer and haul (Naut.), to vary the course or direction; -…

Shifting. -- Veer"ing*ly, adv.

t on the defensive with a weapon. She redoubling her blows drove the stranger to no other shift than to ward and go back. Sir P. Sidney.

To waver, or shake, as if moved by gusts of wind; to shift, turn, or veer about. D

One who whiffles, or frequently changes his opinion or course; one who uses shifts and evasions in argument; hence, a trifler. Every whiffler in a laced coat who frequents the chocolate house shall talk of the constitution. Swift.

A winding and circuitous way; a roundabout course; a shift.