In this article we develop a general technique which takes a known characterization of a property for weighted backward shifts and lifts it up to a characterization of that property for a large class of operators on $L^p(X)$ which we call shift-like. The properties of interest include chaotic properties such as Li-Yorke chaos, hypercyclicity, frequent hypercyclicity as well as tame properties such as shadowing, expansivity and generalized hyperbolicity. Shift-like operators appear naturally as composition operators on $L^p(X)$ when the underlying space is a dissipative measure system. In the process of proving the main theorem, we prove some results concerning when a property is shared by a linear dynamical system and its factors.