shaven, ppl. a.
(ˈʃeɪv(ə)n)
Forms: see the verb.
[Strong pa. pple. of shave v.]
1. = shaved ppl. a. 1 b. Chiefly of the head, crown, or of a person; often = tonsured.
| c 1330 R. Brunne Chron. Wace (Rolls) 16704 Peres of Langtofte, a chanoun Schauen y þe hous of Brydlyngtoun. c 1400 Apol. Loll. (Camden) 89 Wil þu hast habit and schauin croun. a 1500–20 Dunbar Poems xxvi. 28 Quhill preistis come in with bair schevin nekkis. 1528 Tindale Obed. Chr. Man 60 margin, The shaven nacion hath put christ out of his rowme. 1613 Purchas Pilgrimage (1614) 397 His wiues in blacke, with shauen heads, continually mourne. 1647 Trapp Comm. 1 Cor. i. (1656) 662 Hence it grew to a proverb in times of Popery, That hell was paved with Priests shaven crowns. a 1774 R. Fergusson Poems (1807) 240 Wi' powder'd pow and shaven beard. 1781 Cowper Charity 55 Their prince..Died, by the sentence of a shaven priest. 1888 Kipling Departm. Ditties (ed. 3) 24 And red and ever redder grew the General's shaven gill. 1909 J. McCabe Decay Ch. Rome i. 2 Processions of shaven monks. |
| absol. 1528 Tindale Obed. Chr. Man 79 margin, The spirte perteyneth vnto the shaven only. |
b. Comb.| 1591 Troub. Raigne K. John xi, Yee shamelesse shauen⁓crowne! 1837 Dickens Pickw. xxix, Which had been called Coffin Lane ever since the days of the old abbey, and the time of the shaven-headed monks. 1897 Allbutt's Syst. Med. III. 960 The intestine presents the well-known shaven-beard appearance. 1898 Syd. Soc. Lex., Shaven-beard appearance, a peculiar appearance of the enlarged intestinal glands in typhoid fever. |
2. Of turf, grass: Closely cut.
| 1632 Milton Penseroso 66, I walk unseen On the dry smooth-shaven Green. 1716 Lady M. W. Montagu Ep. to Ld. B―t 15 in Dodsley Poems (1748) I. 115 The shaven turf presents a lively green. 1853 G. J. Whyte-Melville Digby Grand xix, Three short turns on the general's shaven lawn. 1886 Corbett Fall Asgard I. 144 The silvery Gula winding peacefully between the shaven meadows. |
3. Trimmed or polished by shaving.
| 1660, 1812 Shaven latten [see latten 1 b]. 1788 Cowper Death Mrs. Throckm. Bulfinch 23 On props of smoothest-shaven wood. 1793 ― Tale, ‘In Scotland's realm’, 'Twas shaven deal. 1802 Wordsw. Resolution & Indep. xi. 72 Himself he propped..Upon a long grey staff of shaven wood. |