Definition of "shave"

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

1713, John Gay, The Rural Sports

Now shaves with level wing the deep.

1667, John Milton, “Book II”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […]; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873,

[…] I watched for sunken stones; I was learning to clap my teeth smartly before my heart flew out, when I shaved by a fluke some infernal sly old snag that would have ripped the life out of the tin–pot steamboat and drowned all the pilgrims; […]

1899 March, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number MI, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], part II

Kingsman’s two-hour 20-minute running time could have been shaved by around a fifth, without losing a great deal.

2017 September 19, Gwilym Mumford, “Kingsman: The Golden Circle review – spy sequel reaches new heights of skyscraping silliness”, in the Guardian‎

The acceleration was impressive, and these trains should allow TfW to look at shaving a few minutes off schedules here and there in the fullness of time, […] .

2023 April 19, Pip Dunn, “Jack of all trades... and master of most”, in RAIL, number 981, page 57

a jolly mealy 'tator, with a shave of butter, and a shake of pepper

1859, Guillaume Sulpice Chevallier, Albert Richard Smith, Sketches of London life & character

yea, tis knowable that the paper money of some of them would not pass, comparatively speaking, much, if any, beyond the smoke of the chimney from whence 'twas issued and circulated before you, or those who had it would have to take a broker's shave on it , at the rate of from a ¼, to 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 15, 20, or more per cent, before it could be used as solvently available means of payment.

1838, Levin Lawrence, No. I. of a series of Letters addressed to N. Biddle, page 13

Being unable to pay the note at maturity, Laws went with Starr to one Snyder, to whom the note was sold at a “shave,” as the parties called it, of 10 per cent.

1854, Horace E. Carter, Albert Gallatin Porter, Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the Supreme Court of Judicature of the State of Indiana; Volume 4, page 192

If this were a dishonest transaction, why did the companies settle? If it were not, why did the heirs submit to a shave of one-half their claims?

1874, The Insurance Journal: A Review of Fire and Life Insurance

Where S made a note to raise money upon, and H, agreeing to discount it for a shave of six dollars, received the note and soon returned with the check of V for the amount of such note, less legal discount, payable to the order of S, and he drew the money thereon and having no knowldge of the agreement or of the payment,–Held, that V was not guilty of usury, but was entitled to recover on the note.

1877, William Wait, A Digest of New York Reports: From 1872 to 1876

He expected to pay the expenses of examining the titles, yet claims that the whole sum paid was a shave.

1878, Court of Appeals, page 7

" […] I had an awful shave getting into the harbour," remarked Archie.

1919, Edward Frederic Benson, Across the Stream