Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Shifter \Shift"er\, n.
   1. One who, or that which, shifts; one who plays tricks or
      practices artifice; a cozener.

            'T was such a shifter that, if truth were known,
            Death was half glad when he had got him down.
                                                  --Milton.

   2. (Naut.) An assistant to the ship's cook in washing,
      steeping, and shifting the salt provisions.

   3. (Mach.)
      (a) An arrangement for shifting a belt sidewise from one
          pulley to another.
      (b) (Knitting Mach.) A wire for changing a loop from one
          needle to another, as in narrowing, etc.

Source : WordNet®

shifter
     n 1: a stagehand responsible for moving scenery [syn: {sceneshifter}]
     2: a mechanical device for engaging and disengaging gears; "in
        England they call a gearshift a gear lever" [syn: {gearshift},
         {gearstick}, {gear lever}]