Shift in one's seat

[Rumo333]

What does the expression to shift in one's seat mean?
Maybe to move back and forward in one's seat? That was what I would have thought.

Is that used in common speech?

Thank You

 

[DavidCoppard]

Perhaps: to squirm in one's seat - a metaphor meaning to sit uncomfortably through nervousness.

 

[Parla]

Backward and forward or from side to side. One might do so because one's nervous, as David suggests—or, simply because the seat's uncomfortable.

 

[Kikurukina]

In this case, "to shift" means "to move." The phrase "to shift in one's seat" usually means that someone is nervous. I think the image is that someone is waiting for something and what they're waiting for is making them nervous.

I usually hear the phrase "to shift." "Back and forward" is completely new to me. It gives me the image of someone rocking in their chair.