razor

a straight shaving razor

English

Alternative forms

• razour (obsolete)

Etymology

From Old French rasour, from raser (“to scrape, to shave”).

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ɹeɪzə/

  Rhymes: -eɪzə(r)

Noun

razor (plural razors)

1. A keen-edged knife of peculiar shape, used in shaving the hair from the face or other parts of the body.
2. Any tool or instrument designed for shaving.
3. The sharp tusk of a wild boar.
4. (philosophy) A conceptual device that allows one to shave away unlikely explanations for a phenomenon.

Translations

shaving knife

Afrikaans: skeermes (af) Albanian: brisk (sq) m. Arabic: موصى الحلاقة (ar) (muusaa-l-Hilaaqa) f., موس الحلاقة (ar) (muus-l-Hilaaqa) m. Morocco: ززوار (zezwār) Catalan: navalla f. Chinese: Mandarin: 剃刀 (cmn) (tìdāo) Croatian: britva f., brijač m. Czech: břitva (cs) f. Danish: kniv (da) Dutch: scheermes (nl) n., mes (nl) n. Esperanto: razilo (eo) Finnish: partaveitsi (fi) French: rasoir (fr) m. German: Rasiermesser n., Rasierapparat m. Greek: ξυράφι (el) (ksirafi) n.

Hungarian: borotva (hu) Irish: rásúr (ga) m. Italian: rasoio (it) m. Japanese: 剃刀 (ja) (かみそり, kamisori), かみそり (ja) (kamisori), レザー (ja) (rezā) Korean: 면도칼 (myeondokal) Latvian: skuveklis m. Macedonian: брич (mk) (brič) m. Old English: scearseax (ang) n. Polish: brzytwa (pl) f. Portuguese: navalha (pt) f. Romanian: brici (ro) n. Russian: бритва (ru) (brítva) f. Serbian: brijač m. Spanish: navaja (es) f. Swedish: rakkniv c. Turkish: ustura (tr)

shaving instrument

Finnish: partahöylä (fi), parranajokone (fi) Greek: ξυράφι (el) (ksirafi) n. Irish: rásúr (ga) m.

Russian: бритва (ru) (brítva) f. Turkish: jilet (tr)

tusk of wild boar

Afrikaans: slagtand (af) Dutch: slagtand (nl)

Finnish: torahammas (fi) Portuguese: presa (pt) f.

Derived terms

• cutthroat razor
• disposable razor
• Occam's razor
• razor blade
• razor clam
• razor-sharp
• razor strap, razor strop
• straight razor

Verb

razor (third-person singular simple present razors, present participle razoring, simple past and past participle razored)

1. (transitive) To cut with a razor.
   • 2008 April 13, Sara Corbett, “Can the Cellphone Help End Global Poverty?”, New York Times:

     He might be busy examining the advertisements for prostitutes stuck up in a São Paulo phone booth, or maybe getting his ear hairs razored off at a barber shop in Vietnam.

References

• “razor” in the Online Etymology Dictionary, Douglas Harper, 2001