Snip vs Shave - What's the difference?

As verbs the difference between snip and shave

is that snip is to cut with short sharp actions, as with scissors while shave is to make bald by using a tool such as a razor or pair of electric clippers to cut the hair close to the skin.

As nouns the difference between snip and shave

is that snip is the act of snipping; cutting a small amount off of something while shave is an instance of shaving.

snip

English

Verb

(en-verb)

To cut with short sharp actions, as with scissors.

I don't want you to take much hair off; just snip my mullet off.

To reduce the price of a product, to create a snip.

To break off; to snatch away.

* Daniel Defoe

The captain seldom ordered anything out of the ship's stores but I snipped some of it for my own share.

(informal) To circumcise.

* 2001 , David Cohen, The Father's Book: Being a Good Dad in the 21st Century , John WIley & Sons Ltd (2001), ISBN 0470841338, page 72:

Circumcised fathers face a special problem. Do you want your son's willy to be that radically different from your own? So, parents should perhaps not be put off. Be good to your son's future lovers and have him snipped .

* 2008 , Ilene Schneider, Talk Dirty Yiddish: Beyond Drek: The Curses, Slang, and Street Lingo You Need to Know When You Speak Yiddish , Adams Media (2008), ISBN 9781598698565, page 150:

His children, however, were not snipped , possibly because Princess Diana was opposed to the practice, which is out of fashion in England.

* 2012 , Tom Hickman, God's Doodle: The Life and Times of the Penis , Square Peg (2012), ISBN 9780224095532, page 144:

By the outbreak of the First World War such claims had diminished and the medical profession touted circumcision as being 'hygienic' — fathers were not only encouraged to have their newborn sons snipped , but to belatedly enjoy the benefits themselves.

Noun

(en noun)

The act of snipping; cutting a small amount off of something.

Something acquired for a low price; a bargain.

That wholesale lot on eBay was a snip at $10

A small amount of something; a pinch.

A vasectomy.

A small or weak person, especially a young one.

* 2010 — Ellen Renner, Castle of Shadows , Hachette UK, 2010 ISBN 1408313723.

'Might as well come out now, you little snip, from wherever you be hiding!'

(obsolete) A share or portion; a snack.

(rfquotek, L'Estrange)

(obsolete, slang) A tailor.

(Nares)

(Charles Kingsley)

Derived terms

* snipper * snippy

Anagrams

* * * *

shave

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) shaven, schaven, from (etyl) , (etyl) skafa.

Verb

To make bald by using a tool such as a razor or pair of electric clippers to cut the hair close to the skin.

To cut anything in this fashion.

The labourer with the bending scythe is seen / Shaving the surface of the waving green.

To remove hair from one's face by this means.

I had little time to shave this morning.

To cut finely, as with slices of meat.

To skim along or near the surface of; to pass close to, or touch lightly, in passing.

* Milton

Now shaves with level wing the deep.

* 1899 ,

(archaic) To be hard and severe in a bargain with; to practice extortion on; to cheat.

(US, slang, dated, transitive) To buy (a note) at a discount greater than the legal rate of interest, or to deduct in discounting it more than the legal rate allows.

Derived terms

* aftershave * reshave * shave brush / shaving brush * shaving bump * shave cream / shaving cream * shave foam / shaving foam * shave down * shave off * shaveling * unshaved

Etymology 2

(etyl) sceafa

Noun

(en noun)

An instance of shaving.

I instructed the barber to give me a shave .

A thin slice; a shaving.

(Wright)

(US, slang, dated) An exorbitant discount on a note.

(US, slang, dated) A premium paid for an extension of the time of delivery or payment, or for the right to vary a stock contract in any particular.

A hand tool consisting of a sharp blade with a handle at each end; a spokeshave.

Derived terms

* close shave