shave

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.transitive

To cut anything in this fashion.transitive

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

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

• I had little time to shave this morning.

To cut finely, for example slices of meat.transitive

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

• Now shaves with level wing the deep.

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, […].

To be hard and severe in a bargain with; to practice extortion on; to cheat.archaictransitive

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.USdatedslang

To injure by employing a knife.Multicultural-London-Englishslangtransitive

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

An instance of shaving.

• I instructed the barber to give me a shave.

A thin slice; a shaving.

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

An exorbitant discount on a note.USdatedslang

• 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.

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.USdatedslang

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

A hand tool, mainly for woodworking, consisting of a sharp blade with a handle at each end.

A narrow miss or escape; a close shave.informal

• "[…] 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.