<p><strong>Noun</strong></p><ul><li>a turning, shifting, or changing: After the scandal there was a dramatic switch of votes to another candidate.</li><li>a slender growing shoot, as of a plant: A forked willow switch can supposedly be used to find water underground.</li><li>a slender, flexible shoot, rod, etc., used especially as a whip, as for corporal punishment: Discipline there was done by means of a switch.</li><li>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.</li><li>a device for turning on or off or directing an electric current or for making or breaking a circuit.</li><li>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.</li><li>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.</li><li>a track structure for diverting moving trains or rolling stock from one track to another, commonly consisting of a pair of movable rails.</li><li>a change to a suit other than the one played or bid previously.</li><li>a maneuver in basketball in which two teammates on defense shift assignments so that each guards the opponent usually guarded by the other.</li><li>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.</li><li>a tuft of hair at the end of the tail of some animals, as of the cow or lion.</li><li>(slang, especially in BDSM) a person willing to take either a dominant or a submissive role in a sexual relationship.</li><li>(in the LGBTQ community) a person willing to take either a penetrative or a receptive role in a particular sexual act, especially anal intercourse.</li></ul><p><strong>Verb</strong></p><ul><li><p>(used with object):</p><ul><li>to shift or exchange: The two girls switched their lunch boxes.</li><li>to turn, shift, or divert: to switch conversation from a painful subject.</li><li>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.</li><li>to move or transfer (a train, car, etc.) from one set of tracks to another.</li><li>to whip or beat with a switch or the like; lash: He switched the boy with a cane.</li><li>to move, swing, or whisk (a cane, a fishing line, etc.) with a swift, lashing stroke.</li></ul></li><li><p>(used without object):</p><ul><li>to change direction or course; turn, shift, or change.</li><li>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.</li><li>to make a stroke or strokes with or as with a switch.</li><li>to move or sway back and forth, as a cat's tail.</li><li>to be shifted, turned, etc., by means of a switch.</li></ul></li></ul>