shave
Pronunciation Verb

shave (shaves, present participle shaving; past shaved, past participle shaved)

  1. (transitive) To make bald or shorter 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.
    • 1667, John Milton, “Book 2”, in Paradise Lost. A Poem Written in Ten Books, London: Printed [by Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […] [a]nd by Robert Boulter […] [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], OCLC 228722708 ↗; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: The Text Exactly Reproduced from the First Edition of 1667: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, OCLC 230729554 ↗:
      Now shaves with level wing the deep.
    • 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 1042815524 ↗, part II:
      {...}} 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. To reduce in size or weight.
  7. (archaic, transitive) To be hard and severe in a bargain with; to practice extortion on; to cheat.
  8. (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.
Translations Translations Translations
  • Portuguese: ralar
  • Spanish: lonchear
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.
  6. (informal) A narrow miss or escape; a close shave.
    • " […] I had an awful shave getting into the harbour," remarked Archie.
Translations


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