shifter

[shif-ter]

noun

a person or thing that shifts.
Informal. shift lever.

Origin of shifter

First recorded in 1545–55; shift + -er¹

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for shifter

Contemporary Examples of shifter

"Correa will have to gauge his decision very carefully," says Shifter.
Ecuador Needs U.S. Aid. Will They Risk It All with Snowden?
Mac Margolis
June 26, 2013

Historical Examples of shifter

There the scene changed as suddenly as at shifter's whistle.
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 64, No. 398, December 1848
Various
I have been a hard-working man, and served all offices on board from cook's shifter to the command of a vessel.
The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle, Volume I
Tobias Smollett
Shifter was allowed to run, and they would move the cars away.
Report of the Committee Appointed to Investigate the Railroad Riots in July, 1877
Various
We walked up Smithfield to the Union depot and got into a car with the shifter in front, and took us out to Twenty-eighth street.
Report of the Committee Appointed to Investigate the Railroad Riots in July, 1877
Various
After he had crossed the yard coming out, he saw a man sneaking toward the shifter, keeping in the shadow of the coal-chutes.
The Taming of Red Butte Western
Francis Lynde

Word Origin and History for shifter

1550s, "one who shifts" in any way; agent noun from shift (v.). As a mechanical contrivance, from 1869; specifically of the gear-changing mechanism in a motor-vehicle, from 1910.