shiv

1 of 2

noun

plural shivs
slang
: a small usually improvised pointed or bladed weapon
With nothing but time on their hands, the prisoners craft weapons from available resources: shivs are made from toothbrushes or pieces of metal bunks.Newsweek
Some created makeshift weapons by fashioning "shivs" out of sharpened spoons and toothbrushes …Kristian Silva
The guards were … attacked with a makeshift weapon—a so-called shiv, fashioned from razor blades and a toothbrush …The Irish Examiner
… remove the staple from a magazine, straighten it, mount it in a juice straw …, you got yourself a neat little shivKent H. Dixon
sometimes used figuratively
… gave an artful lesson in how to stick a shiv into a sitting president without ever raising his voice or making a specific accusation.Walter Shapiro

shiv

2 of 2

verb

shivved also shived; shivving also shiving; shivs

transitive verb

informal
: to stab or cut (someone) with a shiv (see shiv entry 1)
shivved him in the back
often used figuratively
Any signs of dissent will result in his personally shivving the offender politically …Hayes Brown

Examples of shiv in a Sentence

Noun watch yourself in Cell Block 8, or you'll end up with a shiv in your back
Recent Examples on the Web
Noun
The victim was sitting alone at a table when a man sneaked up behind him and pulled out a shiv from his waistband. Rich Schapiro, NBC News, 18 Sep. 2024 For those of you uneducated about Star War Legos, in layman terms this means I was stabbed by a collection of Legos shaped like a prison shiv. Sherry Kuehl, Kansas City Star, 21 Feb. 2024
Verb
After all, one of its tech-bro founders, Alex Mather, smugly told the New York Times in 2017 that the site’s goal was essentially to shiv every newspaper sports section around the country. Globe Staff, BostonGlobe.com, 8 Jan. 2022 Dodge the rules, skirt the law, shiv your business partner, abandon your friends: Chafkin argues that the Silicon Valley edition of this playbook was written at PayPal. Anna Wiener, The New Yorker, 27 Oct. 2021 See all Example Sentences for shiv 

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'shiv.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

Noun

alteration of chiv, of unknown origin

First Known Use

Noun

1897, in the meaning defined above

Verb

1926, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of shiv was in 1897

Dictionary Entries Near shiv

Cite this Entry

“Shiv.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/shiv. Accessed 8 Oct. 2024.

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
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