shave

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   touch the surface of lightly

   My back shaved the counter in passing.

2. 2
   verb

   make shavings of or reduce to shavings

   shave the radish

3. 3
   verb

   cut or remove with or as if with a plane

   The machine shaved off fine layers from the piece of wood

4. 4
   verb

   To cut anything in this fashion.

   The Lab'rer vvith the bending Scythe is ſeen / Shaving the Surface of the vvaving Green; […]

5. 5
   verb

   To remove hair from one's face by this means.

   I had little time to shave this morning.

6. 6
   verb

   To skim along or near the surface of; to pass close to, or touch lightly, in passing.

   Now shaves with level wing the deep.

7. 7
   verb

   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.

8. 8
   verb

   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

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”.