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Glite Dictionary
shift key

shift key

1 2.7
A key on a keyboard that makes letters capital and types other characters
  • noun
  • /ʃɪft ki/
translation icon : tecla mayúscula
  • To type an exclamation mark, hold down the shift key and press the number one.
  • hold down the shift key

So implementation of the keyboard, the shift keys, the caps lock key, the NUM lock key, all handled identically.

Examples

  • Draw the main shape for the Note App while holding down the Shift key (to keep the shape perfect) using the color white.

    Blog text (20)

  • In order to move a box, you need to first press the shift key and then drag it.

    Blog text (8)

  • To keep the lines straight, hold down the Shift key.

    Blog text (20)

  • This can be done by holding down the Shift key while using the Move tool to drag the images on top of each other.

    Academic text (2009)

  • Holding the Shift key down when dragging will maintain the initial aspect ratio.

    Academic text (2007)

  • Hold down the shift key to constrain the triangle to a straight line.

    Academic text (2000)

  • If you'd like to place more than one bug at a time, hold the shift key.

    Blog text (34)

  • Hold down the shift key so that the proportions are constrained while scaling.

    Blog text (25)

  • Because there were some areas of the flower that were not selected, I carefully selected those areas with the Shift key held down using the Magnetic Lasso Tool.

    Academic text (2003)

  • To accomplish this, I used the Magic Wand Tool to select the black area, and I held down the Shift key and used the Magnetic Lasso Tool to select the top and bottom leaves.

    Academic text (2003)

Synonyms

shift
vsshift key
24 2.3

A key you hold to type capital letters or special symbols

is the same meaning but uses the two-word more explicit name

Surface Forms

shift key singular
shift keys plural

Morphology

shift + key

The meaning 'a keyboard key that changes characters' is directly and literally built from 'shift' (to move/change or the shifting function) + 'key' (a pressable keyboard lever). This straightforward noun+noun compound is a common technical, compositional term, so a B1 learner who knows the constituent words will readily infer the MWE's meaning.

Etymology

Shift key comes from old typewriters: pressing the shift key made the machine move, or 'shift', so it would print capital letters instead of small ones. So today pressing the shift key gives you a 'capital letter' or lets you type another symbol like '!'.