/ʃeɪv/
OriginInherited from Middle English shaven, schaven, from Old English sċafan (“to shave, scrape, shred, polish”), from Proto-West Germanic *skaban, from Proto-Germanic *skabaną (“to scrape”), from Proto-Indo-European *skabʰ- (“to cut, split, form, carve”).
Cognate with West Frisian skave, Dutch schaven, Low German schaven, German schaben, Danish skave, Norwegian Nynorsk skava, Swedish skava, Icelandic skafa, Gothic 𐍃𐌺𐌰𐌱𐌰𐌽 (skaban), all roughly “to scrape, chafe, shave, plane, remove the outer lay of”.
- transitiveTo make (the head, skin etc.) bald or (the hair) shorter by using a tool such as a razor or electric clippers to cut the hair close to the skin.
- transitiveTo cut anything in this fashion.
“The Lab'rer vvith the bending Scythe is ſeen / Shaving the Surface of the vvaving Green; […]”
- intransitiveTo remove hair from one's face by this means.
“I had little time to shave this morning.”
- transitiveTo cut finely, for example slices of meat.
- To skim along or near the surface of; to pass close to, or touch lightly, in passing.
“Now shaves with level wing the deep.”
“[…] I watched for sunken stones; I was learning to clap my teeth smartly before my heart flew out, when I shaved by a fluke some infernal sly old snag that would have ripped the life out of the tin–po”
- To reduce in size, weight, time taken etc., usually by a small amount.
“Kingsman’s two-hour 20-minute running time could have been shaved by around a fifth, without losing a great deal.”
“The acceleration was impressive, and these trains should allow TfW to look at shaving a few minutes off schedules here and there in the fullness of time, […].”
- archaic, transitiveTo be hard and severe in a bargain with; to practice extortion on; to cheat.
- US, dated, slang, transitiveTo buy (a note) at a discount greater than the legal rate of interest, or to deduct in discounting it more than the legal rate allows.
- Multicultural-London-English, slang, transitiveTo injure by employing a knife.
“Took one of the goons, the fuck they gonna do?
Shave him in the heart then the mandem smoke a zoot”
- An instance of shaving.
“I instructed the barber to give me a shave.”
- A thin slice; a shaving.
“a jolly mealy 'tator, with a shave of butter, and a shake of pepper”
- US, dated, slangAn exorbitant discount on a note.
“yea, tis knowable that the paper money of some of them would not pass, comparatively speaking, much, if any, beyond the smoke of the chimney from whence 'twas issued and circulated before you, or thos”
“Being unable to pay the note at maturity, Laws went with Starr to one Snyder, to whom the note was sold at a “shave,” as the parties called it, of 10 per cent.”
- US, dated, slangA premium paid for an extension of the time of delivery or payment, or for the right to vary a stock contract in any particular.
“If this were a dishonest transaction, why did the companies settle? If it were not, why did the heirs submit to a shave of one-half their claims?”
“Where S made a note to raise money upon, and H, agreeing to discount it for a shave of six dollars, received the note and soon returned with the check of V for the amount of such note, less legal disc”
“He expected to pay the expenses of examining the titles, yet claims that the whole sum paid was a shave.”
- A hand tool, mainly for woodworking, consisting of a sharp blade with a handle at each end.
- informalA narrow miss or escape; a close shave.
“"[…] I had an awful shave getting into the harbour," remarked Archie.”
Formsshaves(present, singular, third-person) · shaving(participle, present) · shaved(past) · shove(obsolete, past) · shaved(participle, past) · shove(obsolete, participle, past) · shaven(participle, past) · shaves(plural)