Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Slang A knife, razor, or other sharp or pointed implement, especially one used as a weapon.
Wiktionary
- n. A knife. Usually associated with a makeshift instrument fashioned from something not normally used as a weapon (like a plastic spoon or a toothbrush).
- n. A woody by-product from processing flax or hemp.
- n. computing A shim, i.e. a small library that transparently intercepts and modifies calls to an API, usually for compatibility purposes.
- v. To stab someone with a shiv.
- v. By extension, to stab someone with anything not intended as a stabbing weapon.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a knife used as a weapon
Etymologies
- First attested 1665–1675, probably from Romani chiv ("blade"). (Wiktionary)
- Probably Romany chiv, blade. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Let's face it, the list is full of geriatrics who couldn't make a shiv from a broken piece of metal if their lives depended on it.”
“He had a homemade knife we called a shiv in his hand.”
“A shiv is all about masked utility: it’s an innocuous object with improbably toxic intent (whether used to attack others or to protect oneself ...).”
“Remember kids: A shiv is a weapon, to shank is the verb.”
“This is a slideshow of shivs confiscated from maximum-security prison facilities: A shiv is a weapon crafted from the limited resources of a prisoner�s closed world.”
“I've seen a lot of these complaints and criticisms before, and even voiced a few myself, just never sharpened to this kind of shiv-point or stuck in quite so mercilessly.”
“One ad shows a Black guy as a prison convict bragging to another prisoner that he's made a "shiv": an illicit, homemade knife used to hurt others.”
“The shiv, the gat and the red rock"--the rock is Cain's rock, but "shiv" and "gat" are peculiarly 1920s-ish slang.”
“By the way, a knife is referred to as a "shiv" in the pen.”
“I'll bet that rummy packs a 'shiv' in every pocket.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘shiv’.
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old timey talk
Words or Sayings from the 1920's or whatever that no one really uses anymore (at least in that context).
scram, bearcat, heavens to betsy, dick, double-cross, ducky, gams, goofy, hooch, jalopy, john, joe and 174 more...
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select words
luminous, radiant, malicious, zeal, ojalá, voluptuary, rubbish, purlicue, consarnit, upstart, precis, robinsonade and 66 more...
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Surprising four-letter words
I imagine most of these will be Anglo-Saxon, not likely to crop up in the average day's conversation, and thus excellent for Scrabble. ("most" is too common, likewise "will" and even "crop", in an...
blet, quim, clit, buff, sire, wiki, blog, loam, waft, heft, mare, lilt and 68 more...
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erinnbatykefer's Words
ewer, lace, grenadine, wick, haruspex, augur, distal, proximal, supine, labyrinthine, rivers, monongahela and 176 more...
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Really Cool Four-Letter Words
I marvel at the amazing variety of four-letter words in the English language. And that's not even counting really common (to me) words like fuck.
ibis, pelf, sofa, iota, oboe, lava, icon, sped, puha, pulp, puma, kyat and 150 more...
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ashton's Words
genocide, boingy, umwelt, zeitgeist, fungible, vorpal, spawn, discordian, fnord, surreptitious, xyzzy, corruption and 122 more...
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Life is just a four-letter word
Everyone's got their favorites. Here are some of mine.
snit, hobo, minx, kiln, loll, pelf, yegg, ugly, bumf, brio, biro, haha and 92 more...
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wickedwitch's list
lll
alit, plinth, eclat, diaphanous, portico, nival, daedal, apse, fossa, pellet, avail, midge and 143 more...
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Military Matters
words of mass (or minor) destruction
caltrop, stylet, chassepot, baldric, rewet, blunderbuss, musket, flintlock, howitzer, ordnance, casque, dragoon and 148 more...
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jagosaurus's favorites
Words I like mostly because of the way they sound and feel.
ticonderoga, petulance, snark, estimable, chickahominy, feline, gezellig, gneiss, shit, willy-nilly, shelter, coda and 366 more...
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Words that delight me
tepid, perfunctory, trope, benign, inordinate, bewildering, ersatz, boon, delectable, apt, scuttlebutt, sequester and 398 more...
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tomax's Words
legerdemain, yayo, extravasation, wont, faze, coxswain, concomitant, enclave, unguent, rhabdomyolysis, effluent, puerile and 432 more...
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kingrat47's Words
procrustean, devolution, cacophony, hippopotamus, crunch, beware, chortled, sibilant, subtle, undermine, acromegaly, acropolis and 645 more...
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kevinl's Words
indefatigable, dabble, befuddle, fin, infinity, might, futile, squirm, bookish, feint, liquidity, belt and 126 more...
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danallison's Words
polysemy, self-reliance, savor, amenities, vintage, proverbial, colloquial, assemblage, ubiquitous, jocular, prosaic, perambulation and 443 more...
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Words to remember
adventive, affectation, ambiguous, anachronism, anesis, antithetic, apostasy, attenuate, authenticity, autodidact, -fic, bandolier and 146 more...
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