Dictionary of Phrase and Fable—S

Shave

To shave a customer. Hotten says, when a master-draper sees anyone capable of being imposed upon enter his shop, he strokes his ohin, to signify to his assistant that the customer may be shaved.

I shaved through; he was within a shave of a pluck.
I just got through [my examination]; he was nearly rejected as not up to the mark. The allusion is to carpentry.

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
Shaveling
Sharp-set
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