shapeshifter

• shape-shifter

From shape +‎ shifter.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈʃeɪpʃɪftə/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈʃeɪp.ʃɪf.tɚ/

shapeshifter (plural shapeshifters)

1. (fantasy, mythology, science fiction) A person or creature capable of changing their appearance or form at will.
   • 2000, Glen Cook, Water Sleeps:

     The shapeshifter Lisa Bowalk, unable to shed the guise of a black panther, had gone onto the plain as a prisoner but was not now to be found among the dead above or the Captured down below.

   • 2003, Michael Bathgate, The Fox's Craft in Japanese Religion and Folklore: Shapeshifters, Transformations and Duplicities:

     Like the teller of shapeshifter stories—who conjures a shifting world of perceptions and expectations for his or her audience that is strikingly similar to the worlds created by the shapeshifter for its victims—the cultural practice of imagination...is an inherently shifty enterprise....

   • 2004, Devin Grayson, Smallville: City:

     There have also been verified reports of fire-starters and ice-makers and a shapeshifter so powerful she was able to frame another Smallville citizen for a bank robbery!

   • 2015 January 30, Dan Shive, “Comic for Friday, Jan 30, 2015”, in El Goonish Shive - EGS:NP‎, archived from the original on 13 August 2022:

     Granted, Grace is talking about actual transformation, but she's a shapeshifter. For her, growing a couple inches taller is like an alternative to wearing high heels.

2. (figurative) A person who is inconsistent and elusive.
   • 2023, Eleanor Catton, Birnam Wood, page 268:

     She was an alcoholic, very chageable, very deceptive. A shapeshifter. You never knew where you stood with her, […]

• See Thesaurus:shape-shifter.

• phase shifter