To which God of his bounty would shift
Crowns two of flowers well smelling. Chaucer.

Hastily he schifte him[self]. Piers Plowman.

Pare saffron between the two St. Mary's days,
Or set or go shift it that knowest the ways. Tusser.

Carrying the oar loose, [they] shift it hither and thither at pleasure. Sir W. Raleigh.

I would advise you to shift a shirt. Shak.

As it were to ride day and night; and . . . not to have patience to shift me. Shak.

To shift off, to delay; to defer; to put off; to lay aside. -- To shift the scene, to change the locality or the surroundings, as in a play or a story.

Shift the scene for half an hour;
Time and place are in thy power. Swift.

Some this, some that, as that him liketh shift. Chaucer.

The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slippered pantaloon. Shak.

Here the Baillie shifted and fidgeted about in his seat. Sir W. Scott.

Men in distress will look to themselves, and leave their companions to shift as well as they can. L'Estrange.

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.

To make shift, to contrive or manage in an exigency. "I shall make shift to go without him." Shak.

[They] made a shift to keep their own in Ireland. Milton.