shiv
See also: Shiv
English
editAlternative forms
editEtymology
editFirst attested 1915. From chive, chieve, chife, chiv (“knife”), from Romani chive, chiv, chivvomengro (“knife, dagger, blade”).[1][2][3][4][5]
Pronunciation
edit- IPA(key): /ʃɪv/
Audio (General Australian): (file) - Rhymes: -ɪv
Audio (Southern England): (file)
Noun
editshiv (plural shivs)
- A knife, especially a makeshift one fashioned from something not normally used as a weapon (like a plastic spoon or a toothbrush).
- Synonym: (slang) shank
- 1971, Abbie Hoffman, “Introduction”, in Steal This Book, Pirate Editions / Grove Press:
- It's perhaps fitting that I write this introduction in jail—that graduate school of survival. Here you learn how to use toothpaste as glue, fashion a shiv out of a spoon and build intricate communication networks.
- 2024 April 13, Jacob Bernstein, quoting Judith Regan, “When O.J. Simpson ‘Confessed’ to Murder”, in The New York Times[1]:
- Mr. Simpson finished “If I Did It” with the help of a ghostwriter, but after a public outcry, the book was shelved, and the woman who had agreed to publish it lost her job. “Basically, I got the shiv,” Ms. Regan said in a phone interview this week.
- A particular woody by-product of processing flax or hemp.
Derived terms
editTranslations
editknife
Verb
editshiv (third-person singular simple present shivs, present participle shivving or shiving, simple past and past participle shivved or shived)
- (transitive) To stab (someone) with a shiv.
- Synonyms: jab, (slang) shank; see also Thesaurus:stab
- 2016, Andrew Shaffer, The Day of the Donald, Crooked Lane Books, →ISBN, page 6:
- Anyway, that's how Jimmie came to be shivved and left to bleed out in the shower.
- (transitive, by extension) To stab (someone) with anything not normally used as a stabbing weapon.
Translations
editstab
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References
edit- ^ Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “shiv”, in Online Etymology Dictionary, retrieved 6 July 2017: “"a razor," 1915, variant of chive, thieves' cant word for "knife" (1670s), of unknown origin.”
- ^ “shiv”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present: “Alteration of chiv, of unknown origin. First known use: 1915”
- ^ “shiv”, in Collins English Dictionary, accessed 6 July 2017; from Michael Agnes, editor, Webster’s New World College Dictionary, 4th edition, Cleveland, Oh.: Wiley, 2010, →ISBN: “Word origin of 'shiv': earlier chiv, prob. < Romany chiv, blade”
- ^ “shiv”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022. "Probably from Romany chiv ‘blade’."
- ^ “shiv n.”, in Green’s Dictionary of Slang, Jonathon Green, 2016–present
Anagrams
editCategories:
- English terms derived from Romani
- English 1-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio pronunciation
- Rhymes:English/ɪv
- Rhymes:English/ɪv/1 syllable
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English terms with quotations
- English verbs
- English transitive verbs
- en:Weapons
- en:Flax