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Shave

//ʃeɪv// name, noun, verb, slang

Definitions

Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A surname.
Noun
  1. 1
    An instance of shaving.

    "I instructed the barber to give me a shave."

  2. 2
    the act of removing hair with a razor wordnet
  3. 3
    A thin slice; a shaving.

    "a jolly mealy 'tator, with a shave of butter, and a shake of pepper"

  4. 4
    An exorbitant discount on a note. US, dated, slang

    "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 those who had it would have to take a broker's shave on it , at the rate of from a ¼, to 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 15, 20, or more per cent, before it could be used as solvently available means of payment."

  5. 5
    A premium paid for an extension of the time of delivery or payment, or for the right to vary a stock contract in any particular. US, dated, slang

    "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?"

Show 2 more definitions
  1. 6
    A hand tool, mainly for woodworking, consisting of a sharp blade with a handle at each end.
  2. 7
    A narrow miss or escape; a close shave. informal

    ""[…] I had an awful shave getting into the harbour," remarked Archie."

Verb
  1. 1
    To 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. transitive
  2. 2
    remove body hair with a razor wordnet
  3. 3
    To cut anything in this fashion. transitive

    "The Lab'rer vvith the bending Scythe is ſeen / Shaving the Surface of the vvaving Green; […]"

  4. 4
    touch the surface of lightly wordnet
  5. 5
    To remove hair from one's face by this means. intransitive

    "I had little time to shave this morning."

Show 10 more definitions
  1. 6
    cut closely wordnet
  2. 7
    To cut finely, for example slices of meat. transitive
  3. 8
    make shavings of or reduce to shavings wordnet
  4. 9
    To skim along or near the surface of; to pass close to, or touch lightly, in passing.

    "Now shaves with level wing the deep."

  5. 10
    cut or remove with or as if with a plane wordnet
  6. 11
    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."

  7. 12
    cut the price of wordnet
  8. 13
    To be hard and severe in a bargain with; to practice extortion on; to cheat. archaic, transitive
  9. 14
    To 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. US, dated, slang, transitive
  10. 15
    To injure by employing a knife. Multicultural-London-English, slang, transitive

    "Took one of the goons, the fuck they gonna do? Shave him in the heart then the mandem smoke a zoot"

Etymology

Etymology 1

Inherited 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”.

Etymology 2

From Middle English shave, from Old English sceafa, from Proto-Germanic *skabô.

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