permanent shave

English

Etymology

From the early 1900s, presumably a pun on permanent wave.

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Noun

permanent shave (plural permanent shaves)

1. (idiomatic, dated) A throat-slitting.
   • 1930, Fleischer Studios, Swing You Sinners:

     (ghost brandishing a noose:) “Brother, you sure gonna get your face lifted.” (ghost brandishing a razor:) “And a permanent shave! Ha! Ha! Ha!”

   • 1999, Louis Rogers, Ladder to the Sky:

     ‘Last chance,’ she said. ‘Or.’ ‘Or else,’ she said, pantomiming a knife being drawn across her throat. ‘You’re going to shave me?’ ‘A permanent shave,’ she said.

   • 2015, Steven Montano, The Last Acolyte:

     I walked right up to Ravus’s unconscious body with the intention of blasting his brains out, and that’s exactly what would have happened if the hot Fangorian who’d been escorting me to the table hadn’t pulled a blade from out of nowhere and held it up to my neck so hard that if I so much as breathed wrong I’d get a permanent shave.

2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see permanent,‎ shave.