Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to steal.

1585		Fleetwood in Ellis Original Letters (1825) II 303: Lyft is to robbe a shoppe or a gentilmans chamber, shave is to ffylche a clooke, a sword, a sylver sponne or such like, that is negligentlie looked unto .
1719		in D’Urfey Pills to Purge Melancholy III 105: The Maidens had shav’d his Breeches.
1839		Crim.-Con. Gaz. 1 June 169/1: I saw Mr Spears, the barber [...] walking off with a piece of beef, which you said was to give to the poor — that was shaving the dinner with a vengeance.

2. to defraud, to rob, to overcharge; thus intensified as shave to the quick [used in this sense as SE in late 14C–early 16C].

1533		J. Heywood Pardoner and Friar Ai: I com not hyther to poll nor to shave.
1551		T. More Utopia I (1624) 12: Their tenants, I meane, whom they poll and shaue to the quicke by raising their rents.
1591		Greene Notable Discovery of Coosnage in Grosart (1881–3) X 27: They meane to shaue the conie cleane of all his coine.
1680		T. Betterton Match in Newgate II iii: A Pox on Trickwell, he has shav’d me, he has trimmed me!
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: He shaves close, he gripes, squeezes, or extorts very severely.
1725		New Canting Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1817		J.K. Paulding Letters from the South II 167: A man is obliged to go to a broker to get shaved, as the phrase is, as often as to a barber .
1823		‘Jon Bee’ A Dict. of the Turf, The Ring, The Chase, etc.
1838		N.Y. Daily Express 19 Oct. 2/4: A gentleman [complains] that he had been shaved out of $29.70 at the Auction Store of Pliny & Davis.
1842		Whip & Satirist of NY & Brooklyn (NY) 19 Feb. n.p.: The clerks are invariably ordered [...] to ‘shave’ (a slang term for cheating) all customers.
1856		Life in Boston & N.Y. (Boston, MA) 25 Oct. n.p.: Mary, look out for the barbers, or they will shave you close .
1858		R.S. Surtees Ask Mamma 232: ‘That you would shave us,’ muttered Mr. Paul Straddler to Hicks, the flying hatter.
1865		Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 31/1: Did you ever supect either of ‘shaving’ you while you have been with them?
1873		Sl. Dict. 285: Shave ‘to shave a customer,’ charge him more for an article than the marked price. Used in the drapery trade. When the master sees an opportunity of doing this, he strokes his chin, as a signal to his assistant who is serving the customer.
1883		Era (London) 7July 16/1: Sol Smith, wide awake as he was, had [...] been ‘shaved’ to a pretty considerable order.
1888		H. King Savage London 142: Flags devoted most of her thoughts to checkmating Mrs. Doo’s greed. Her continual scheming was to ‘shave Mother Doo’.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn) 203: shave To plunder, to fleece.
1984		W.D. Myers Outside Shot 79: [of match-fixing in basketball by manipulating the points spread] He did okay [in the NBA] until he got in with some gamblers and started shaving points.
2013		T. Peacock More You Bet 83: In such case, a bookie might be said to ‘shave’ his mike [i.e his financial backer], just as a commission agent might be said to ‘shave’ his principal.

3. (US drugs) to reduce the size of a supposed one-ounce cube of morphine.

1938		D. Maurer ‘Lang. of the Und. Narcotic Addict’ Pt 2 in Lang. Und. (1981) 108/2: To shave. To reduce a Piece or cube of narcotics as it passes from dealer to dealer or from addict to addict.
1959		J.E. Schmidt Narcotics Lingo and Lore.

4. (UK Und.) to attack with a razor or knife; thus shaving, a stabbing or slashing.

1989		(con. 1950s–60s) in G. Tremlett Little Legs 197: shave to attack someone with a razor, as in ‘gave him a shave’.
2014		Perm ‘What’s all the talk about’ 🎵 Hella draws but who you niggas shot (nobody) / Shave one man / Now you’re rolling ’round like you’re the hardest squad.
2017		Unknown T ‘Bop with Smoke’ 🎵 Revenge for Z-9 and I promise / I been itching out for a shaving.

5. (UK black/gang) to cause to suffer (physically or emotionally).

2018-20

T. Thorne (ed.) ‘Drill Slang Glossary’ at Forensic Linguistic Databank 🌐 Shaved - humiliated, punished.