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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

shiv.

A knife, especially a makeshift one fashioned from something not normally used as a weapon (like a plastic spoon or a toothbrush).

4 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ʃɪv/
  1. A knife, especially a makeshift one fashioned from something not normally used as a weapon (like a plastic spoon or a toothbrush).

    countable · slang
  2. A particular woody by-product of processing flax or hemp.

    uncountable
Where this word comes from

First attested 1915. From chive, chieve, chife, chiv (“knife”), from Romani chive, chiv, chivvomengro (“knife, dagger, blade”).

verb/ʃɪv/
  1. To stab (someone) with a shiv.

    slang · transitive
  2. To stab (someone) with anything not normally used as a stabbing weapon.

    broadly · slang · transitive
Where this word comes from

First attested 1915. From chive, chieve, chife, chiv (“knife”), from Romani chive, chiv, chivvomengro (“knife, dagger, blade”).

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.