subs. (common).—A narrow escape; a SQUEAK (q.v.): usually with ‘close,’ ‘near,’ &c. Whence TO MAKE A SHAVE (or TO SHAVE THROUGH) = to get through ‘by the skin of one’s teeth.’
1844. Puck, 14. Of all the men that with me read There’s never one … But got thro’, if he made a SHAVE on’t.
1860. W. H. RUSSELL, My Diary in India, xxi. ‘By Jove! that was a near SHAVE!’… a bullet whistled within an inch of our heads.
1871. Daily News, 7 March. In those famous telegrams of the King the expression, “Danke nur Gott!” means “It was a close SHAVE!”
1876. F. BURNABY, A Ride to Khiva, Introduction. I had, as it is commonly termed, a much closer SHAVE for my life than I believe would ever have been the case even if I had been taken prisoner by the most fanatical Turkomans in Central Asia.
1885. The Field, 4 April. It was a desperately close SHAVE.
1898. N. GOULD, Landed at Last, vii. “We’ve had some narrow squeaks of missing him in old England.” … “The next narrow SHAVE was at York.”
2. (common).—A false report; a practical joke; a SELL (q.v.).
1854. Morning Chronicle, 13 Dec. “According to camp reports or camp SHAVES, as they are more expressively termed.”
1860. W. H. RUSSELL, My Diary in India, xii. At first a SHAVE of old Smith, then a well authenticated report.
1874. BEETON, The Siliad, 29. The SHAVES are many; so the nests of mares.
1882. Daily Telegraph, 3 Oct., 5, 7. Rumours of Turkish troops being landed as our allies adding to the SHAVES that hourly came out.
1884. G. A. SALA, Illustrated London News, 26 April, 391, 3. The legend is probably a mere barrack-room SHAVE, but it is worth noting. Ibid. (1883), Living London, 115. SHAVE for hoax first obtained currency during the Crimean War.
3. (stock exchange).—A money consideration paid for the right to vary a contract, by extension of time for delivery or payment, &c.
4. (theatrical).—The proportion of the receipts paid to a travelling company by a local manager.
See SHAVER.
Verb. (old).—To extort; to strip; to cheat (B. E.). Hence SHAVING (or SHAVERY) = (1) usury, and (2) overcharge (with drapers called SHAVING THE LADIES). Also SHAVER = (1) a cheat, a swindler; (2) a banker, broker, or money-lender given to usury; and (3) SHAVER (q.v.): whence SHAVING-SHOP = a WILD-CAT BANK (q.v.) SHAVING-TERMS = make all you can.
1548. LATIMER, Sermons, 100 [T. L. KINGTON-OLIPHANT, The New English, i. 515. Latimer coins SHAVERY, something like slavery; to express the robbery of the Church].
1603. KNOLLES, The Generall Historie of the Turkes, p. 672. They fell almost all into the hands of the cruell mountaine people, liuing for the most part by theft, and waiting for wrackes, as hawkes for their prey: by these SHAUERS the Turkes were stript of all they had.
1606. T. DEKKER, The Seven Deadly Sinnes of London (ARBER’S) 40. Then haue you the SHAUING of Fatherlesse children, and of widowes, and thats done by Executors…. Then haue you Brokers yat SHAUE poore men by most iewish interest. Ibid., 39. The next … was … a SHAUER of yong Gentlemen, before euer a haire dare peepe out of their chinnes: and these are Vsurers.
1638. FORD, The Lady’s Trial, ii. 1.
| Whoo! the brace are flinch’d, | |
| The pair of SHAVERS are sneak’d from us, Don. |
1850. DICKENS, David Copperfield, xxii. ‘He pays well, I hope?’… ‘Pays as he speaks, my dear child—through the nose…. None of your close SHAVERS the Prince ain’t.’
c. 1857. Parody on Emerson’s Brahma [BARTLETT].
| If the Stock Broker thinks he SHAVES, | |
| Or if the victim thinks he ’s SHAVED, | |
| Let both the rascals have their say, | |
| And he that ’s cheated, let him pay. |
1862. North American Review, July, 113. This Wall-Street NOTE-SHAVING life is a new field, a very peculiar field.
1863. Once a Week, viii., 179. We have all heard for instance of an operation called ‘SHAVING THE LADIES,’ yet we doubt if any lady is aware of the very clean shave she is constantly undergoing.
1864. G. A. SALA, The Streets of the World [Temple Bar, Dec., 40]. He is as dextrous as a Regent-Street counterjumper in the questionable art of ‘SHAVING THE LADIES.’
c. 1870. Life in New York [BARTLETT]. Make your money by SHAVING notes or stock-jobbing, and every door is thrown open; make the same amount by selling Indian candy, and the cold shoulder is turned upon you.
1871. Daily Telegraph, 6 Oct. ‘Official Corruption in America.’ Tax-gatherers, brokers, SHAVERS, &c.,… pets of the Treasury.
1893. P. H. EMERSON, Signor Lippo, xiv. What wages? says I. SHAVING TERMS, SHAVING TERMS, my boy, says he.
