Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (US) an excessive discount on a note [shave a note v.].

1839		Spirit of the Times (N.Y.) 12 Oct. 373/1: The greater the shave, the more we want the money [DA].
1855		Chicago Times 27 Jan. 2/2: When it [currency issued by certain banks] was offered at the very bank that had loaned it, [...] the sucker offering it was compelled to stand a shave of from ten to twenty per cent [DA].
1898		E.N. Westcott David Harum 157: You’ve bled her fer shaves to the tune of sixty odd dollars in three years, an’ then got your int’rist in full.

2. a trick, a hoax, a rumour.

1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1894		J. Astley Fifty Years (2nd edn) I 183: Scarcely a day passed but what some new shave was started as to when and where we were to go.

3. a narrow escape; esp. as close shave, narrow shave [SE shave, a glancing touch].

1853		‘Cuthbert Bede’ Adventures of Mr Verdant Green (1982) I 85: ‘Do you think Mr Slowcoach will — oh! — expel me?’ ‘Well, it’s rather a shave for it.’.
1860		W.H. Russell Diary in India I 245: ‘By Jove! that was a near shave!’ This exclamation was drawn from us by a bullet which whistled within an inch of our heads.
1876		F. Burnaby Ride to Khiva 4: Typhoid fever [...] and I had, as it is commonly termed, a much closer shave for my life than [...] even if I had been taken prisoner by the most fanatical Turkomans in Central Asia.
1885		Field 4 Apr. n.p.: It was a desperately close shave [F&H].
1898		N. Gould Landed at Last 71: ‘We’ve had some narrow squeaks missing him in London.’ [...] ‘The next narrow shave was at York.’.
1900		Boy’s Own Paper 29 Dec. 194: That was a close shave, Mister. The black scoundrel was goin’ to drive his spear into yer back when I dropped him!
1902		J. Masefield ‘One of the Bosun’s Yarns’ Salt-Water Ballads 23: You’ve had a shave, if you wish to know, from the port of Kingdom Come.
1920		Marvel 24 July 4: It’s all right, Little, but we have had a narrow shave.

4. (N.Z.) a crop-haired young man (although not an actual skinhead).

2003

McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl.