Spiv vs Shiv - What's the difference?
spiv | shiv |
(British, dated) A smartly dressed person who trades in illicit, black-market or stolen goods.
(British, dated) A flashy con artist, often homeless, who lives by his wits.
(British, dated) In Scotland Yard usage, a low and common thief.
(British, dated) A slacker; one who shirks responsibility.
A knife, especially a makeshift one fashioned from something not normally used as a weapon (like a plastic spoon or a toothbrush).
A particular woody by-product of processing flax or hemp.
(computing) A shim, i.e. a small library that transparently intercepts and modifies calls to an API, usually for compatibility purposes.
To stab someone with a shiv.
(by extension) To stab someone with anything not normally used as a stabbing weapon.
As nouns the difference between spiv and shiv
is that spiv is a smartly dressed person who trades in illicit, black-market or stolen goods while shiv is a knife, especially a makeshift one fashioned from something not normally used as a weapon (like a plastic spoon or a toothbrush).As a verb shiv is
to stab someone with a shiv.spiv
English
(wikipedia spiv)Noun
(en noun)Synonyms
* (l) * (l) * (l)Derived terms
* (l), (l)Quotations
* "I make no apology for attacking spivs and gamblers who did more harm to the British economy than [transport union leader] Bob Crow could achieve in his wildest Trotskyite fantasies, while paying themselves outrageous bonuses underwritten by the taxpayer." -- on the banking system."Cable in attack on bonuses for City 'spivs'", Gavin Stamp, BBC News, 2010-09-22
External links
*"spiv" at World Wide WordsMichael Quinion, 2001
