shave

verb

1. (transitive)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.
2. (transitive)To cut anything in this fashion.

   “The Lab'rer vvith the bending Scythe is ſeen / Shaving the Surface of the vvaving 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, for example slices of meat.
5. To skim along or near the surface of; to pass close to, or touch lightly, in passing.

   “Now shaves with level wing the deep.”

   “[…] 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, weight, time taken etc., usually by a small amount.

   “Kingsman’s two-hour 20-minute running time could have been shaved by around a fifth, without losing a great deal.”

   “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, […].”

7. (archaic, transitive)To be hard and severe in a bargain with; to practice extortion on; to cheat.
8. (US, dated, slang, 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.
9. (Multicultural-London-English, slang, transitive)To injure by employing a knife.

   “Took one of the goons, the fuck they gonna do? Shave him in the heart then the mandem smoke a zoot”

noun

1. An instance of shaving.

   “I instructed the barber to give me a shave.”

2. A thin slice; a shaving.

   “a jolly mealy 'tator, with a shave of butter, and a shake of pepper”

3. (US, dated, slang)An exorbitant discount on a note.

   “yea, tis knowable that the paper money of some of them would not pass, comparatively speaking, much, if any, beyond the smoke of the chimney from whence 'twas issued and circulated before you, or those who had it would have to take a broker's shave on it , at the rate of from a ¼, to 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 15, 20, or more per cent, before it could be used as solvently available means of payment.”

   “Being unable to pay the note at maturity, Laws went with Starr to one Snyder, to whom the note was sold at a “shave,” as the parties called it, of 10 per cent.”

4. (US, dated, slang)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.

   “If this were a dishonest transaction, why did the companies settle? If it were not, why did the heirs submit to a shave of one-half their claims?”

   “Where S made a note to raise money upon, and H, agreeing to discount it for a shave of six dollars, received the note and soon returned with the check of V for the amount of such note, less legal discount, payable to the order of S, and he drew the money thereon and having no knowldge of the agreement or of the payment,–Held, that V was not guilty of usury, but was entitled to recover on the note.”

   “He expected to pay the expenses of examining the titles, yet claims that the whole sum paid was a shave.”

5. A hand tool, mainly for woodworking, consisting of a sharp blade with a handle at each end.
6. (informal)A narrow miss or escape; a close shave.

   “"[…] I had an awful shave getting into the harbour," remarked Archie.”

   “"Was it a near thing?" asked Carrados confidentially. "Well, strictly between ourselves, I don't mind admitting that it might have been something of a shave," confessed Tulloch, with a cheerful grin.”

name

1. A surname.