What’s the meaning of “shuffling” in the following example?
Hi friends,

What’s the meaning of “shuffling” in the following example?

" Jane has been shuffling between London and Paris for around 10 years. "

According to my dictionary, it means ‘walk by dragging one's feet along or without lifting them fully from the ground”. But it doesn't tally with the situation in the above sentence.

Thanks in advance,
Niwantha

Question

What’s the meaning of “shuffling” in the following example?
Hi friends,

What’s the meaning of “shuffling” in the following example?

" Jane has been shuffling between London and Paris for around 10 years. "

According to my dictionary, it means ‘walk by dragging one's feet along or without lifting them fully from the ground”. But it doesn't tally with the situation in the above sentence.

Thanks in advance,
Niwantha

Answer

In this context it means she's been going back and forth between London and Paris, probably in a random and chaotic time frame.

Shuffling can mean multiple things such as mixing items or files up. For example you shuffle a deck of cards. Or the "shuffle" option on a music playing device will play a song at random.

I hope that clears things up!

Answer

Thanks Stephan!

Answer

Sometimes people use "shuffling" to mean "moving between". For example "Shuffling between work and home", it means you are moving a lot between work and home. In your example it means "Jane has been moving between London and Paris for around 10 years" but that doesn't sound quite right so they use "shuffling". It is rare to use "shuffling" like that though.