Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To move with short sliding steps, without or barely lifting the feet.
  • intransitive verb To dance casually with sliding and tapping steps.
  • intransitive verb To shift from position to position or move from place to place.
  • intransitive verb To present, play, or display (music or video files) in random order.
  • intransitive verb Games To mix playing cards, tiles, or dominoes together so as to make their order random.
  • intransitive verb Archaic To act in a shifty or deceitful manner; equivocate.
  • intransitive verb To slide (the feet) along the floor or ground while walking.
  • intransitive verb To move (things, for example) from one place or position to another; transfer or shift.
  • intransitive verb To put quickly or furtively; shunt.
  • intransitive verb To present, play, or display music or video files in random order.
  • intransitive verb Games To mix together (playing cards or tiles, for example) so as to make a random order of arrangement.
  • noun A short sliding step or movement, or a walk characterized by such steps.
  • noun A dance in which the feet slide along or move close to the floor.
  • noun A confused mixture or state of things; a jumble.
  • noun A feature on a music or video player that plays music or other files in a random order.
  • noun An act of shuffling cards, dominoes, or tiles.
  • noun A player's right or turn to do this.
  • noun Archaic An evasive or deceitful action; an equivocation.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A shoving or pushing; particularly, a thrusting out of place or order; a change producing disorder.
  • noun Specifically, a changing of the order of cards in a pack so that they may not fall to the players in known or preconcerted order. See shuffle, v. t., 2.
  • noun The right or turn of shuffling or mixing the cards: as, whose shuffle is it?
  • noun A varying or undecided course of behavior, usually for the purpose of deceiving; equivocation; evasion; artifice.
  • noun A slow, heavy, irregular manner of moving; an awkward, dragging gait.
  • noun In dancing, a rapid scraping movement of the feet; also, a dance in which the feet are shuffled alternately over the floor at regular intervals. The double shuffle differs from the shuffle in each movement being executed twice in succession with the same foot.
  • To shove little by little; push along gradually from place to place; hence, to pass from one to another: as, to shuffle money from hand to hand.
  • Specifically, to change the relative positions of (cards in a pack).
  • To thrust carelessly or at random; change by pushing from place to place; hence, to confuse; mix; intermingle.
  • To put or bring (in, off, out, up, etc.) under cover of disorder, or in a confused, irregular, or tricky way.
  • To drag with a slovenly, scraping movement; move with a shuffle.
  • To perform with a shuffle.
  • To push; shove; thrust one's self forward.
  • To mix up cards in a pack, changing their positions so that they may fall to the players in irregular and unknown order. Compare I., 2.
  • To move little by little; shift gradually; shift.
  • To shift to and fro in conduct; act undecidedly or evasively; hence, to equivocate; prevaricate; practise dishonest shifts.
  • To move in a slow, irregular, lumbering fashion; drag clumsily or heavily along a surface; especially, to walk with a slovenly, dragging, or scraping gait.
  • To shove the feet noisily to and fro on the floor or ground; specifically, to scrape the floor with the feet in dancing.
  • To proceed awkwardly or with difficulty; struggle clumsily or perfunctorily.
  • Synonyms To equivocate, quibble, sophisticate, dodge.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • intransitive verb To change the relative position of cards in a pack.
  • intransitive verb To change one's position; to shift ground; to evade questions; to resort to equivocation; to prevaricate.
  • intransitive verb To use arts or expedients; to make shift.
  • intransitive verb To move in a slovenly, dragging manner; to drag or scrape the feet in walking or dancing.
  • transitive verb To shove one way and the other; to push from one to another.
  • transitive verb To mix by pushing or shoving; to confuse; to throw into disorder; especially, to change the relative positions of, as of the cards in a pack.
  • transitive verb To remove or introduce by artificial confusion.
  • transitive verb to push off; to rid one's self of.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English shovelen, probably of Middle Dutch or Middle Low German origin.]

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