shifter

Meanings

Plural: shifters

Noun

• a stagehand responsible for moving scenery
• a mechanical device for engaging and disengaging gears
• One who, or that which, shifts or changes.
• A word whose meaning changes depending on the situation, as by deixis.
• Someone who plays tricks; a trickster.
• An assistant to the ship's cook in washing, soaking, and shifting the salt provisions.
• A control device (usually a lever or button) for shifting gears in a gearbox, or an arrangement for shifting a belt sidewise from one pulley to another.
• A wire for changing a loop from one needle to another, as in narrowing, etc.
• A component used by the rider to control the gearing mechanisms and select the desired gear ratio, usually connected to the derailleur by a mechanical actuation cable.
• A spanner with an adjustable jaw size.
• A person employed to repair the horseways and other passages, and keep them unobstructed.
• A switcher or shunter: a railroad locomotive used for shunting.
• A shape-shifter; a person or other being capable of changing their physical form, especially a lycanthrope.
• A shiftworker.
• Ellipsis of reality shifter.

Synonyms

changeling, gear lever, gearshift, gearstick, sceneshifter, shape-shifter, shapeshifter, shifter

Related Words

stickshift