shive

A parallel form of sheave, from Middle English schyve, from Proto-West Germanic *skībā, from Proto-Germanic *skībǭ, presumably through an Old English *sċīfe (though it is not attested before the Middle English period). Cognate with German Scheibe, late Old Norse skífa (“slice”), brauðskífa (“slice of bread”) (whence Danish skive (“disc, slice”)), Dutch schijf (“disc, slice”).

• IPA^(key): /ʃaɪv/

  • Audio (Southern England)

    (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪv

shive (plural shives)

1. A slice, especially of bread.
   • c. 1588–1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Lamentable Tragedy of Titus Andronicus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:

     Of a cut loafe to steale a shiue

   • 1980, Anthony Burgess, Earthly Powers:

     In my cool room with the shutters shut and the thin shives of air and light coming through the slats, I cried myself to sleep in an overloud selfpitying transport.

2. (obsolete) A sheave.
3. A beam or plank of split wood.
4. A flat, wide cork for plugging a large hole or closing a wide-mouthed bottle.
   • 2011, John Alexander, A Guide to Craft Brewing‎:

     If the conditioning continues to be fairly brisk, a wooden tut might appear to distort a little under the stress of the internal pressure, with the beer seeping out around the tut and shive.

From Middle English schyfe, schyffe, from Proto-Germanic *skibō-; cognate with German Schäbe, Dutch scheef, and Low German Schääv, all ‘fragment of the woody core of flax or hemp’.[1] The expected pronunciation would be /ʃɪv/; the pronunciation /ʃaɪv/ is probably due to the combined influence of Etymology 1 and the spelling.

• IPA^(key): /ʃaɪv/
• Rhymes: -aɪv

shive (plural shives)

1. A splinter or fragment of the woody core of flax or hemp broken off in braking or scutching
2. A plant fragment remaining in scoured wool.
3. A piece of thread or fluff on the surface of cloth or other material.
4. (papermaking) A dark particle or impurity in finished paper resulting from a bundle of incompletely cooked wood fibres in the pulp.

• (wood fragment of the husk of flax or hemp): shiv, boon, shove, hurd

Variant of shiv.

• IPA^(key): /ʃɪv/
• Rhymes: -ɪv

shive (plural shives)

1. Alternative form of shiv
   • 2006, Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day, Vintage, published 2007, page 50:

     So every alleyway down here, every shadow big enough to hide a shive artist with a grudge, is a warm invitation to rewrite history.

See shiva

• IPA^(key): /ˈʃɪvə/
• Rhymes: -ɪvə

shive

1. Alternative spelling of shiva
   • 2010, William Labov, A Life of Learning‎:

     There are some cultural details in Schissel’s story that are specific to the Jewish community: the family sits shive (seven days of mourning for the dead), and the preference for silence at that time.

• sit shive

• hives

shive

1. Alternative form of schyve