shiv

noun/ʃɪv/

Frequency rank: #11,944 of 20,003 in the WORDED list (wordfreq data)

Meaning

a makeshift knife or sharp weapon, typically improvised in prison.

Illustration for the English word “shiv”

Example sentence

The prisoner was caught hiding a homemade shiv under his mattress.

Synonyms & related words

More words in ranks 11,901–12,000