Meanings
- uncountableThe process of making fine distinctions, especially in regard to behavior that is considered unacceptable versus behavior that is almost but not quite objectionable.
Between unequivocal perverty behavior and, say, the light fevered brush-up against somebody's arm on a divan lay a multitude of point-shaving.
1987, Paul Hendrickson, Seminary: A Search, page 163 - alternativeuncountableAlternative form of point shaving (“a type of match fixing”).
In point-shaving, the classic form of corruption in college basketball, a player or team controls by how many points it wins so gamblers can collect on bets.
1989, Lewis Cole, Never Too Young to Die: The Death of Len Bias, page 1422 more examples
By making it possible to manipulate game scores while preserving the thrills of victory, point-shaving deliberately severed links between the game itself and any broader moral meanings it might have offered, suggesting that the implicated athletes had already abandoned their belief in such connections.
2001, Pamela Grundy, Learning to Win, page 224In athletics, this may take the form of point-shaving, college recruiting scandals, performance drugs — all of which are quickly becoming as commonplace as sixand seven-figure salaries for sports stars.
2013, Alfie Kohn, No Contest: The Case Against Competition
- gerundparticiplepresentpresent participle and gerund of point-shave
Cite this entry
point-shaving. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/point-shaving
“point-shaving.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/point-shaving. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “point-shaving,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/point-shaving.
Source: point-shaving on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.