shave
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: enpr: shāv
ipa: /ʃeɪv/
rhymes: -eɪv
Forms: form: shaves
form: shaving
form: shaved
form: shove
form: shaved
form: shove
form: shaven
Etymology: 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”.
Senses: coordinate_terms: shear#Verb
fleece#Verb
trim#Verb
glosses: 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.
examples: text: The Lab'rer vvith the bending Scythe is ſeen / Shaving the Surface of the vvaving Green; […]
ref: 1713, [John] Gay, Rural Sports. A Poem. […], 2nd edition, London: […] J[acob] Tonson, […], →OCLC, page 10:
glosses: To cut anything in this fashion.
examples: text: I had little time to shave this morning.
glosses: To remove hair from one's face by this means.
glosses: To cut finely, as with slices of meat.
examples: text: Now shaves with level wing the deep.
ref: 1667, John Milton, “Book II”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
text: […] 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; […]
ref: 1899 March, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number MI, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part II:
glosses: To skim along or near the surface of; to pass close to, or touch lightly, in passing.
examples: text: Kingsman’s two-hour 20-minute running time could have been shaved by around a fifth, without losing a great deal.
ref: 2017 September 19, Gwilym Mumford, “Kingsman: The Golden Circle review – spy sequel reaches new heights of skyscraping silliness”, in the Guardian:
text: 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, […].
ref: 2023 April 19, Pip Dunn, “Jack of all trades... and master of most”, in RAIL, number 981, page 57:
glosses: To reduce in size, weight, time taken etc., usually by a small amount.
glosses: To be hard and severe in a bargain with; to practice extortion on; to cheat.
glosses: 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.
examples: text: Took one of the goons, the fuck they gonna do?
Shave him in the heart then the mandem smoke a zoot
ref: 2021 June 26, Rackz LC, “War” (1:45 from the start):
synonyms: stab
chef
ching
juice
shiv
jook
shank
glosses: To injure by employing a knife.
Derived terms: aftershave
God Shave the Queen
reshave
shave brush
shave cream
shave down
shave foam
shaveling
shave off
shave up
shaving brush
shaving bump
shaving cream
shaving foam
unshaved