I think you'd have to subclass QApplication and reimplement some method responsible for delivering events, but it may be a complex task. I suggest you look for another solution You could remove the shortcuts not using any modifier keys and reimplement keyPressEvent for a particular widget instead triggering appropriate actions. You could then enable/disable those "shortcuts" on the fly. Furthermore the shortcuts will only be active when the widget has keyboard focus, which is probably what you want.