• Shave

    Pronunciation

    • enPR: shāv, IPA: /ʃeɪv/
    • Rhymes: -eɪv

    Origin 1

    From Middle English shaven, schaven, from Old English scafan ("to shave, scrape, shred, polish"), from Proto-Germanic *skabaną ("to scratch"), from Proto-Indo-European *skÀbʰ-, *skabʰ- ("to cut, split, form, carve"). Cognate with West Frisian skave, Dutch schaven ("to shave, plane"), German schaben ("to scrape, shave"), Danish skave, Swedish skava ("to scrape, chafe"), Icelandic skafa.

    Full definition of shave

    Verb

    1. (transitive) To make bald by using a tool such as a razor or pair of electric clippers to cut the hair close to the skin.
    2. (transitive) To cut anything in this fashion.
      • The labourer with the bending scythe is seen
        Shaving the surface of the waving green.
    3. (intransitive) To remove hair from one's face by this means.I had little time to shave this morning.
    4. (transitive) To cut finely, as with slices of meat.
    5. To skim along or near the surface of; to pass close to, or touch lightly, in passing.
      • MiltonNow shaves with level wing the deep.
      • 1899, Joseph Conrad, ,... 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–pot steamboat and drowned all the pilgrims; ...
    6. (archaic, transitive) To be hard and severe in a bargain with; to practice extortion on; to cheat.
    7. (US, slang, dated, transitive) 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.

    Origin 2

    Old English sceafa

    Noun

    shave

    (plural shaves)
    1. An instance of shaving.I instructed the barber to give me a shave.
    2. A thin slice; a shaving.
    3. (US, slang, dated) An exorbitant discount on a note.
    4. (US, slang, dated) 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.
    5. A hand tool consisting of a sharp blade with a handle at each end; a spokeshave.

    Derived terms

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