green-shave

verb

To scrape the flesh side of an untanned hide.

Meanings

verbgreen-shave (third-person singular simple present green-shaves, present participle green-shaving, simple past and past participle green-shaved)

present singular third person green-shaves · participle present green-shaving · participle past green-shaved · past green-shaved · alternative green shave

  1. transitiveTo scrape the flesh side of an untanned hide.

    The sides, after being unhaired, are put in clean water over night, then green-shaved and put in a bate of hen manure four or five days.

    1889, Annual report of the Bureau of Animal Industry - Volume 4, Parts 1887-1888, page 425
    3 more examples

    There are diverse opinions as to the relative value of liming or sweating, pin-wheeling, milling, green-shaving or “ fleshing,” and whether “sewed” or “open-tanned” goat-skins are preferable.

    1885, Henry Mills Alden, Harper's New Monthly Magazine - Volume 70, page 279

    In a machine for unhairing or green-shaving hides or skins, the combination of the following instrumentalities, to wit : a rotary table, means for securing a hide or skin to said table, a journalled roll provided peripherally with scrapers or cutters, means for causing said scrapers or cutters, means for causing scrapers or cutters to press against the hide or skin and operative mechanism for the table and roll, substatially as set forth.

    1887, Canadian Patent Office Record - Volumes 15-16, page 8

    The most convincing argument for those tanners who continue to green-shave their hides would be to pick out several of the large green shavings and tan them.

    1891, John W. Stevens, Leather Manufacture
Cite this entry
APA

green-shave. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/green-shave

MLA

“green-shave.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/green-shave. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “green-shave,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/green-shave.

Source: green-shave on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.