Link Centre Dictionary

shave

UK/ˈʃeɪ̯v/ US/ˈʃeɪ̯v/ common informal slang us
verb (6) noun (1)

verb

1.
2.

cut closely

  • “trim my beard”
Synonyms
3.

cut the price of

Synonyms
4.

cut or remove with or as if with a plane

  • “The machine shaved off fine layers from the piece of wood”
Synonyms
5.

make shavings of or reduce to shavings

  • “shave the radish”
6.

touch the surface of lightly

  • “His back shaved the counter in passing”

noun

1.

the act of removing hair with a razor

Synonyms

Origin

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”.

Phrases

  • close shave
  • God Shave the Queen
  • green shave
  • near shave
  • permanent shave
  • shave and a haircut
  • shave brush
  • shave cream
  • shave down
  • shave foam
  • shave hook
  • shave horse

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

Narrower terms

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.