shave
Americanverb (used without object)
-
shaves,
present (3rd person singular)
-
shaved,
past participle, past
-
shaven,
past participle
-
shaving
present participle
verb (used with object)
-
shaves,
present (3rd person singular)
-
shaved,
past participle, past
-
shaven,
past participle
-
shaving
present participle
-
to remove hair from (the face, legs, etc.) by cutting it off close to the skin with a razor.
-
to cut off (hair, especially the beard) close to the skin with a razor (often followed by off oraway ).
-
to cut or scrape away the surface of with a sharp-edged tool.
to shave hides in preparing leather.
-
to reduce to shavings or thin slices.
to shave wood.
-
to cut or trim closely.
to shave a lawn.
-
to scrape, graze, or come very near to.
The car just shaved the garage door.
-
Commerce. to purchase (a note) at a rate of discount greater than is legal or customary.
-
to reduce or deduct from.
The store shaved the price of winter suits in the spring.
noun
-
shaves
plural
-
the act, process, or an instance of shaving or being shaved.
-
a thin slice; a shaving.
-
any of various tools for shaving, scraping, removing thin slices, etc.
verb
-
(also intr) to remove (the beard, hair, etc) from (the face, head, or body) by scraping the skin with a razor
-
to cut or trim very closely
-
to reduce to shavings
-
to remove thin slices from (wood, etc) with a sharp cutting tool; plane or pare
-
to touch or graze in passing
-
informal to reduce (a price) by a slight amount
-
commerce to purchase (a commercial paper) at a greater rate of discount than is customary or legal
noun
-
the act or an instance of shaving
-
any tool for scraping
-
a thin slice or shaving
-
an instance of barely touching something
-
informal a narrow escape
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
-
reshaveverb
-
shavableadjective
-
shaveableadjective
-
unshavableadjective
-
unshaveableadjective
-
unshavedadjective
-
well-shavedadjective
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
shavesimple
-
shavessimple
-
have shavedperfect
-
have shavenperfect
-
has shavedperfect
-
has shavenperfect
-
am shavingprogressive
-
are shavingprogressive
-
is shavingprogressive
-
have been shavingperfect progressive
-
has been shavingperfect progressive
Past
-
shavedsimple
-
had shavedperfect
-
had shavenperfect
-
was shavingprogressive
-
were shavingprogressive
-
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:
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
The 27-year-old's own voluminous locks will remain intact, having pledged to shave his head if Panama won the World Cup.
From BBC ● Jun. 27, 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
At least once a week I wonder whether it would be simpler to go full Jada Pinkett Smith and just shave it off.
From Slate ● May 23, 2026
Suppose a man goes into the bathroom to shave.
From "Cheaper by the Dozen" by Frank B. Gilbreth Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey
A more than $1-a-gallon run-up since January shaves about 5% off her earnings for most journeys.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 7, 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
His agent, Scott Boras, is the best in the business, and he doesn’t give hometown discounts or anything else that shaves numbers off the bottom line.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 31, 2024
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
As I collect fist-sized, dry tree branches, Chou bends and shaves the leaves with her ax.
From "First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers" by Loung Ung
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
He shaved it off, he told me, because maintaining it was too much trouble.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 3, 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
In recent weeks, Smith has shared heartwrenching glimpses into the family’s battle, including photos of Whimsy’s curls being shaved and her bald head bedazzled with gems.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 18, 2026
In his Sunday best and shaved, Dad was a fine-looking man.
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
The Sheriff’s Department is looking for the suspect, who was described as a Black male, 6 feet, 2 inches tall, 180 pounds and with a shaven head.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 4, 2025
Black-bearded, with a shaven and shiny head, he’s wearing a Star Wars T-shirt that declares “Your Empire Needs You”.
From BBC ● Aug. 31, 2024
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
That’s not the case for James Stolis, a chemical engineer in Las Vegas, who declared independence from his follicles last July 4 by shaving his head on a mountaintop in California.
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
The review could not save Mitchell, who was frustrated to see the ball was shaving leg stump - another umpire's call that has gone against the Black Caps in this match.
From BBC ● Jun. 6, 2026
Forgiveness is posthumously granted through cinema, shaving away anything unpleasant that is no longer necessary to dwell on.
From Salon ● Jun. 2, 2026
And Zooey continued to stand gazing at her, not shaving.
From "Franny and Zooey" by J. D. Salinger
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.
