A residue-based error checking mechanism is provided for checking for error in a shift operation of a shifter. The checking includes: partitioning an input vector into the shifter into one or more bit groups of bit width W; generating a predicted residue on the input vector being shifted, the generating including masking out any bit group of bit width W fully shifted out by the shift operation from contributing to the predicted residue, and the generating accounting for any bits of a bit group of the input vector partially shifted out by the shift operation; generating a result residue on a result vector of the shift operation; and comparing the result residue with the predicted residue to check for an error in the result vector of the shift operation.