Shove

Pronunciation

• enPR: shÅ­v, IPA: /ʃʌv/
• Rhymes: -ÊŒv

Origin

From Middle English shoven, schouven, from Old English scūfan, from Proto-Germanic *skeubaną (compare West Frisian skowe, Low German schuven, Dutch schuiven, German schieben, Danish skubbe), from Proto-Indo-European *skeubʰ- (compare Lithuanian skùbti ‘to hurry’, Polish skubać ‘to pluck’, Albanian humb ‘to lose’).

Full definition of shove

Verb

1. To push, especially roughly or with force.
• 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, Mr. Pratt's Patients Chapter 12, So, after a spell, he decided to make the best of it and shoved us into the front parlor. 'Twas a dismal sort of place, with hair wreaths, and wax fruit, and tin lambrekins, and land knows what all
2. To move off or along by an act of pushing, as with an oar or pole used in a boat; sometimes with off.
• GarthHe grasped the oar, received his guests on board, and shoved from shore.
3. (poker, by ellipsis) To make an all-in bet.
4. (slang) To pass (counterfeit money).

Derived terms

• shover
• shove off
• shove-it
• push and shove
• shove ha'penny

Noun

1. A rough push.
• Jonathan SwiftI rested ... and then gave the boat another shove.
2. (poker slang) An all-in bet.

Derived terms

• when push comes to shove