- a turning, shifting, or changing: After the scandal there was a dramatic switch of votes to another candidate.
- a slender growing shoot, as of a plant: A forked willow switch can supposedly be used to find water underground.
- a slender, flexible shoot, rod, etc., used especially as a whip, as for corporal punishment: Discipline there was done by means of a switch.She would take a switch to the ox, but never more severely than to get its attention.
- a stroke, lash, or whisking movement, with or as if with a slender, flexible rod or shoot: She was interrupted by a switch in the face from a tree branch.
- a device for turning on or off or directing an electric current or for making or breaking a circuit.
- Computers.
- a device connecting others in a network, enabling communication among them by interrogating each received data packet for its source and destination and then routing it to the appropriate device in the network.
- (in a program or piece of code) a structure permitting a number of different actions as determined by the value of a particular expression.
- an argument sent to a program when it is run from the command line rather than via a graphical user interface, and which modifies the function of the command.
- a track structure for diverting moving trains or rolling stock from one track to another, commonly consisting of a pair of movable rails.
- a change to a suit other than the one played or bid previously.
- a maneuver in which two teammates on defense shift assignments so that each guards the opponent usually guarded by the other.
- a hairpiece consisting of a bunch or tress of long hair or some substitute, fastened together at one end and worn by women to supplement their own hair.
- a tuft of hair at the end of the tail of some animals, as of the cow or lion.
- Slang.
- (especially in BDSM) a person who is willing to take either a dominant or a submissive role in a sexual relationship.
- (in the LGBTQ community) a person who is willing to take either a penetrative or a receptive role in a particular sexual act, especially anal intercourse.
- to shift or exchange: The two girls switched their lunch boxes.
- to turn, shift, or divert: to switch conversation from a painful subject.
- to connect, disconnect, or redirect (an electric circuit or the device it serves) by operating a switch (often followed by off or on): I switched on a light.
- Railroads.
- to move or transfer (a train, car, etc.) from one set of tracks to another.
- to drop or add (cars) or to make up (a train).
- to shift rapidly from one camera to another in order to change camera angles or shots.
- to whip or beat with a switch or the like; lash: He switched the boy with a cane.
- to move, swing, or whisk (a cane, a fishing line, etc.) with a swift, lashing stroke.
- to change direction or course; turn, shift, or change.
- to exchange or replace something with another: He still eats a lot of potato chips, but he's switched to a brand that's lower in salt.
- to make a stroke or strokes with or as with a switch.
- to move or sway back and forth, as a cat's tail.
- to be shifted, turned, etc., by means of a switch.
- to execute a switch.
- to lead a card of a suit different from the suit just led by oneself or one's partner.
- failing to perform one's duty, missing an opportunity, etc., because of negligence or inattention: He lost the contract because he was asleep at the switch.
- a mechanical, electrical, electronic, or optical device for opening or closing a circuit or for diverting energy from one part of a circuit to another
- a swift and usually sudden shift or change
- an exchange or swap
- a flexible rod or twig, used esp for punishment
- the sharp movement or blow of such an instrument
- a tress of false hair used to give added length or bulk to a woman's own hairstyle
- the tassel-like tip of the tail of cattle and certain other animals
- any of various card games in which the suit is changed during play
- a railway siding
- a railway point
- Australian informal See switchboard
- to shift, change, turn aside, or change the direction of (something)
- to exchange (places); replace (something by something else)
- to transfer (rolling stock) from one railway track to another
- to cause (an electric current) to start or stop flowing or to change its path by operating a switch
- to swing or cause to swing, esp back and forth
- to lash or whip with or as if with a switch