spiv
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of spiv
1885–90; back formation from dial. spiving smart; perhaps akin to spiffy
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.
The actor - defined by his roles as Arthur Daley and St Trinian's spiv Flash Harry - died in hospital following a short illness, aged 90.
From BBC ● Dec. 30, 2015
He’s what we Britons call a spiv, a dandified minor crook, and his knees seem to stay perpetually bent, often grotesquely so.
From New York Times ● Jun. 7, 2013
This was the era of the corruptly alluring spiv, the postwar black market and the reaction against socialist austerity fostered by a combination of the rightwing press and the subversive Ealing Comedy.
From The Guardian ● Jun. 9, 2012
He started off so smarmily overconfident about his new career as a spiv.
From Slate ● Feb. 13, 2012
The decline and fall of Empire is measured by the spurious successes of a black-marketeering London spiv who finds loot among the ruins.
From Time Magazine Archive
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.
