shiv
See also: Shiv
English

A Soviet-era Russian shiv.
Etymology
First attested 1915. From chive, chieve, chife, chiv (“knife”), from Romani chive, chiv, chivvomengro (“knife, dagger, blade”).[1][2][3][4]
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ʃɪv/
Audio (AU) (file) - Rhymes: -ɪv
Audio (Southern England) (file)
Noun
shiv (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.
- A particular woody by-product of processing flax or hemp.
Derived terms
Translations
Verb
shiv (third-person singular simple present shivs, present participle shivving, simple past and past participle shivved)
- To stab someone with a shiv.
- (by extension) To stab someone with anything not normally used as a stabbing weapon.
Synonyms
- shank (slang)
Translations
stab
References
- 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’."
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