spiv
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
- spivvy adjective
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
There are senior figures who occupy posts as regulators who want to put an end to spiv culture – such as Lord Turner at the FSA and Sir John Vickers at the banking commission.
From The Guardian • Nov. 19, 2012
He started off so smarmily overconfident about his new career as a spiv.
From Slate • Feb. 13, 2012
British Novelist Francis King, 34, pitches his inhumane comedy on the rise and fall of a young Greek spiv of the postwar dead-beat generation.
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.
