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Wiktionary
shift key

n. 1 The key on a typewriter used to select uppercase letters and certain special characters by physically moving the mechanism 2 (context computing English) A key on a personal computer or terminal keyboard used to effect the same function, or to change the function of the function keys

Wikipedia
Shift key

The shift key is a modifier key on a keyboard, used to type capital letters and other alternate "upper" characters. There are typically two shift keys, on the left and right sides of the row below the home row. The shift key's name originated from the typewriter, where one had to press and hold the button to shift up the case stamp to change to capital letters; the shift key was first used in the Remington No. 2 Type-Writer of 1878; the No. 1 model was capital-only.

On the US layout and similar keyboard layouts, characters that typically require the use of the shift key include the parentheses, the question mark, the exclamation point, and the colon.

When the caps lock key is engaged, the shift key can be used to type lowercase letters on many operating systems, but not OS X.

Usage examples of "shift key".

He reached for the most innocuous key on a computer keyboard - the shift key - to shut off the screen saver.

Since the shift key alone doesn't issue commands or affect the programs or data stored on a machine, hackers never hook a trip wire to that key.

He owned a fifty-year-old typewriter with a faulty shift key, and his library consisted of the odd titles found on the twenty-five-cent table in secondhand bookstores.