Library / English Dictionary

SHUFFLE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Walking with a slow dragging motion without lifting your feet

Example:

from his shambling I assumed he was very old

Synonyms:

shamble; shambling; shuffle; shuffling

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("shuffle" is a kind of...):

walk; walking (the act of traveling by foot)

Derivation:

shuffle (walk by dragging one's feet)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The act of mixing cards haphazardly

Synonyms:

make; shuffle; shuffling

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("shuffle" is a kind of...):

reordering (a rearrangement in a different order)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "shuffle"):

reshuffle; reshuffling (shuffling again)

riffle (shuffling by splitting the pack and interweaving the two halves at their corners)

Holonyms ("shuffle" is a part of...):

card game; cards (a game played with playing cards)

Derivation:

shuffle (mix so as to make a random order or arrangement)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Mix so as to make a random order or arrangement

Example:

shuffle the cards

Synonyms:

mix; ruffle; shuffle

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "shuffle" is one way to...):

manipulate (hold something in one's hands and move it)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "shuffle"):

reshuffle (shuffle again)

riffle (shuffle (playing cards) by separating the deck into two parts and riffling with the thumbs so the cards intermix)

cut (divide a deck of cards at random into two parts to make selection difficult)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

shuffle (the act of mixing cards haphazardly)

shuffler (the card player who shuffles the cards)

shuffling (the act of mixing cards haphazardly)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Walk by dragging one's feet

Example:

We heard his feet shuffling down the hall

Synonyms:

scuffle; shamble; shuffle

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Hypernyms (to "shuffle" is one way to...):

walk (use one's feet to advance; advance by steps)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "shuffle"):

drag; scuff (walk without lifting the feet)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s PP

Sentence example:

The children shuffle to the playground

Derivation:

shuffle (walking with a slow dragging motion without lifting your feet)

shuffler (someone who walks without raising the feet)

shuffling (walking with a slow dragging motion without lifting your feet)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Move about, move back and forth

Example:

He shuffled his funds among different accounts in various countries so as to avoid the IRS

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Hypernyms (to "shuffle" is one way to...):

shift; transfer (move around)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something PP

Credits

 Context examples: 

Generation of Antibody Diversity during B-lymphocyte development results from a cascade of temporally ordered random gene shuffling translocations by a recombinase that join any one of multiple alternative discrete V, D, and J (heavy chain) or V and J (light chain) antibody gene variable region DNA coding segments that produce in each B-lymphocyte an antibody with a unique antigen binding region composed of a heavy and a light protein chain.

(Generation of Antibody Diversity, NCI Thesaurus)

It was as much, however, as was desired, and more than was expected, by Edward and Elinor; and Mrs. Ferrars herself, by her shuffling excuses, seemed the only person surprised at her not giving more.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

Yahoo as I am, it is well known through all Houyhnhnmland, that, by the instructions and example of my illustrious master, I was able in the compass of two years (although I confess with the utmost difficulty) to remove that infernal habit of lying, shuffling, deceiving, and equivocating, so deeply rooted in the very souls of all my species; especially the Europeans.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

All these were blotted out by a grotesque and terrible nightmare brood—frowsy, shuffling creatures from the pavements of Whitechapel, gin-bloated hags of the stews, and all the vast hell's following of harpies, vile-mouthed and filthy, that under the guise of monstrous female form prey upon sailors, the scrapings of the ports, the scum and slime of the human pit.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Mutation of the gene is associated with hydrocephalus due to stenosis of the aqueduct of Sylvius (HSAS), mental retardation, aphasia, shuffling gait, and adducted thumbs syndrome (MASA or CRASH syndrome), spastic paraplegia 1, X-linked and agenesis of the corpus callosum, X-linked, partial and may contribute to intestinal aganglionosis in Hirschsprung disease.

(L1CAM wt Allele, NCI Thesaurus)

There was a pause of shuffling feet and hard breathing, broken by the thud of a tremendous body blow from Wilson, which the smith stopped with the utmost coolness.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The sailors now crowded boldly aft, grinning and shuffling, to watch the pummelling of the hated Cockney.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

The unexpected had swept its wizardry over the face of things, changing the perspective, juggling values, and shuffling the real and the unreal into perplexing confusion.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

At each of these inquiries Mr. Barkis shuffled nearer to her, and gave her another nudge; so that at last we were all crowded together in the left-hand corner of the cart, and I was so squeezed that I could hardly bear it.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

On he clambered, with his hand shuffling down the long sloping crack, sometimes bearing all his weight upon his arms, at others finding some small shelf or tuft on which to rest his foot.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)