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Shave   /ʃeɪv/   Listen
verb
Shave  v. t.  (past shaved; past part. shaved or shaven; pres. part. shaving)  
1.
To cut or pare off from the surface of a body with a razor or other edged instrument; to cut off closely, as with a razor; as, to shave the beard.
2.
To make bare or smooth by cutting off closely the surface, or surface covering, of; especially, to remove the hair from with a razor or other sharp instrument; to take off the beard or hair of; as, to shave the face or the crown of the head; he shaved himself. "I'll shave your crown for this." "The laborer with the bending scythe is seen Shaving the surface of the waving green."
3.
To cut off thin slices from; to cut in thin slices. "Plants bruised or shaven in leaf or root."
4.
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.
To strip; to plunder; to fleece. (Colloq.)
To shave a note, to buy it at a discount greater than the legal rate of interest, or to deduct in discounting it more than the legal rate allows. (Cant, U.S.)


Shave  v. i.  (past shaved; past part. shaved or shaven; pres. part. shaving)  To use a razor for removing the beard; to cut closely; hence, to be hard and severe in a bargain; to practice extortion; to cheat.


Shave  v.  Obs. p. p. of Shave. "His beard was shave as nigh as ever he can."


noun
Shave  n.  
1.
A thin slice; a shaving.
2.
A cutting of the beard; the operation of shaving.
3.
(a)
An exorbitant discount on a note. (Cant, U.S.)
(b)
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. (Cant, U.S.)
4.
A hand tool consisting of a sharp blade with a handle at each end; a drawing knife; a spokeshave.
5.
The act of passing very near to, so as almost to graze; as, the bullet missed by a close shave. (Colloq.)
Shave grass (Bot.), the scouring rush. See the Note under Equisetum.
Shave hook, a tool for scraping metals, consisting of a sharp-edged triangular steel plate attached to a shank and handle.





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Shave" Quotes from Famous Books



... it was a very cheap one; and therefore proved a real sham and shave; it leaked like an old shingle roof; and in a rain storm, kept my hair wet and disagreeable. Besides, from lying down on deck in it, during the night watches, it got bruised and battered, and lost all its beauty; so that it was ...
— Redburn. His First Voyage • Herman Melville
... begin to prank himself, To plait and comb his head, and beard to shave, And look his face i' th' water as a glass, And to compose ...
— The Anatomy of Melancholy • Democritus Junior
... eagerness to sing, there is a plain and manly simplicity about Vachel that delights us all. We like to know that here is a poet who has wrestled with poverty, who never wrote a Class Day poem at Harvard, who has worn frayed collars or none at all, and who lets the barber shave the back of his neck. We like to know that he has tramped the ties in Georgia, harvested in Kansas, been fumigated in New Jersey, and lives contented in Illinois. Four weeks a year he lives as the darling of the cisalleghany ...
— Shandygaff • Christopher Morley
... practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it ...
— The Best of the World's Classics, Restricted to Prose, Vol. X (of X) - America - II, Index • Various
... her chair, he kissed her flushed cheek, while George remarked carelessly: "I'll see you later, father, when I've had a bath and a shave." ...
— Life and Gabriella - The Story of a Woman's Courage • Ellen Glasgow


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