shave
Americanverb (used without object)
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shaves,
present (3rd person singular)
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shaved,
past participle, past
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shaven,
past participle
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shaving
present participle
verb (used with object)
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shaves,
present (3rd person singular)
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shaved,
past participle, past
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shaven,
past participle
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shaving
present participle
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to remove hair from (the face, legs, etc.) by cutting it off close to the skin with a razor.
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to cut off (hair, especially the beard) close to the skin with a razor (often followed by off oraway ).
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to cut or scrape away the surface of with a sharp-edged tool.
to shave hides in preparing leather.
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to reduce to shavings or thin slices.
to shave wood.
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to cut or trim closely.
to shave a lawn.
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to scrape, graze, or come very near to.
The car just shaved the garage door.
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Commerce. to purchase (a note) at a rate of discount greater than is legal or customary.
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to reduce or deduct from.
The store shaved the price of winter suits in the spring.
noun
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shaves
plural
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the act, process, or an instance of shaving or being shaved.
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a thin slice; a shaving.
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any of various tools for shaving, scraping, removing thin slices, etc.
verb
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(also intr) to remove (the beard, hair, etc) from (the face, head, or body) by scraping the skin with a razor
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to cut or trim very closely
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to reduce to shavings
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to remove thin slices from (wood, etc) with a sharp cutting tool; plane or pare
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to touch or graze in passing
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informal to reduce (a price) by a slight amount
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commerce to purchase (a commercial paper) at a greater rate of discount than is customary or legal
noun
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the act or an instance of shaving
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any tool for scraping
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a thin slice or shaving
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an instance of barely touching something
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informal a narrow escape
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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reshaveverb
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shavableadjective
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shaveableadjective
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unshavableadjective
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unshaveableadjective
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unshavedadjective
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well-shavedadjective
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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shavesimple
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shavessimple
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have shavedperfect
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have shavenperfect
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has shavedperfect
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has shavenperfect
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am shavingprogressive
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are shavingprogressive
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is shavingprogressive
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have been shavingperfect progressive
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has been shavingperfect progressive
Past
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shavedsimple
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had shavedperfect
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had shavenperfect
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was shavingprogressive
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were shavingprogressive
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had been shavingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of shave
before 900; (v.) Middle English schaven, schafen, Old English sc ( e ) afan; cognate with Dutch schaven to plane (a plank), abrade (the skin), Low German schaven, German schaben, Old Norse skafa to scrape, Gothic skaban to shear, shave; (noun) Middle English schave tool for shaving, Old English sc ( e ) afa, derivative of the v.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
“In the minor leagues, we had to shave, had to keep it low,” Heyward said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 25, 2026
The planned changes to the personal-consumption expenditures index are expected to shave about two-tenths of a percentage point off the inflation rate.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 6, 2026
Using specially designed ultra-long-haul Airbus planes, Qantas expects to shave about four hours off the current journey time.
From BBC ● Jun. 26, 2026
If we take the 30-year loan and make one extra payment a year, and apply that to the principal, we will shave eight years off the life of the loan.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 23, 2026
He proceeded to ask whether the trouble was caused by a shave, a wandering spirit.
From "A Girl Named Disaster" by Nancy Farmer
A sermon used to take him 10 to 15 hours to prepare; a chatbot doing first-pass research and phrasing shaves off several of them.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 19, 2026
The updated release date shaves off even more prison time for Combs, who was initially projected to be freed in June 2028.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 16, 2026
The 37-year-old millionaire has also posted images of hundreds of inmates, their head shaves, in orange uniforms being moved to a new mega-prison, echoing moves by El Salvador's Nayib Bukele.
From Barron's ● Nov. 16, 2025
Unless polling shows that he shaves a point or so off of their own races, in which case they’ll wave him off.
From Slate ● Aug. 3, 2024
I wanted him to boast about me to the customers tomorrow as he gave haircuts and shaves.
From "Flowers for Algernon" by Daniel Keyes
Mall of America in Bloomington, Minn., operates a claw-machine arcade with more than 100 units, plus bubble tea and Korean shaved ice.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 20, 2026
A platter of summer tomatoes, tuna-belly conserva, shaved onion, and punchy olives arrives where it cannot possibly fit.
From Salon ● Aug. 11, 2026
With his head shaved and wearing a yellow prison jumpsuit, Farinacci appeared in court where his bail was raised from $1 million to $2 million.
From Barron's ● Aug. 7, 2026
The mediocre headline increase comes with a big caveat: A bigger U.S. trade deficit and smaller inventory replenishment shaved 1.7 percentage points off the economy’s growth rate.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 30, 2026
His neck was shaved far above his shirt.
From "The Teacher’s Funeral" by Richard Peck
Who knows where the trend began, but I remain clean shaven.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 3, 2026
Smith is described by police as white, bald, and clean shaven.
From BBC ● Nov. 5, 2025
And then there are the images of the migrants deported to a notorious El Salvador prison, shackled one behind the other in prison garb, their heads bowed and shaven.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 18, 2025
Mr. Bankman-Fried, 32, was in the courtroom, clean shaven and wearing a loose fitting brown jail uniform.
From New York Times ● Mar. 28, 2024
The silver streak in his closely shaven head glows in the subtle darkness, and the crescent-shaped scar under his right eye looks deeper.
From "The Belles" by Dhonielle Clayton
While her least favourite of the sprint disciplines, that continues to involve winters focused on shaving time off her 60m best, which she again lowered this season to 7.04 - the eighth-fastest worldwide this year.
From BBC ● Aug. 17, 2026
“Cancer has a way of taking things you never realized you’d grieve,” she wrote alongside a video of the parents shaving Whimsy’s head.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 18, 2026
After all, shaving remains the cheapest and quickest way to deal with a receding hairline.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 24, 2026
Kluska believes uniQure has a clear shot at launching the drug by late 2027, shaving years off Cantor’s original 2030 timeline.
From Barron's ● Jun. 17, 2026
“Well, we talk about words, but it’s not the same as other teachers. Like we never use paper. Ever. He has me write letters in blue or pink sand. Or sometimes in shaving cream.”
From "Fish in a Tree" by Lynda Mullaly Hunt
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
