diff --git a/src/libstd/vec_ng.rs b/src/libstd/vec_ng.rs
index eed5143b7cff..eb73416c8016 100644
--- a/src/libstd/vec_ng.rs
+++ b/src/libstd/vec_ng.rs
@@ -398,6 +398,11 @@ impl<T> Vec<T> {
         self.insert(0, element)
     }
 
+    #[inline]
+    pub fn shift(&mut self) -> Option<T> {
+        self.remove(0)
+    }
+
     pub fn insert(&mut self, index: uint, element: T) {
         let len = self.len();
         assert!(index <= len);
@@ -420,6 +425,30 @@ impl<T> Vec<T> {
         }
     }
 
+    fn remove(&mut self, index: uint) -> Option<T> {
+        let len = self.len();
+        if index < len {
+            unsafe { // infallible
+                let ret;
+                {
+                    let slice = self.as_mut_slice();
+                    // the place we are taking from.
+                    let ptr = slice.as_mut_ptr().offset(index as int);
+                    // copy it out, unsafely having a copy of the value on
+                    // the stack and in the vector at the same time.
+                    ret = Some(ptr::read(ptr as *T));
+
+                    // Shift everything down to fill in that spot.
+                    ptr::copy_memory(ptr, &*ptr.offset(1), len - index - 1);
+                }
+                self.set_len(len - 1);
+                ret
+            }
+        } else {
+            None
+        }
+    }
+
     #[inline]
     pub fn rev_iter<'a>(&'a self) -> RevItems<'a,T> {
         self.as_slice().rev_iter()