A CLOSE SHAVE

Idiomatic Meaning: A narrow escape from danger or disaster; a near miss; a situation where a disaster, an accident, etc. almost happens; nearly have a bad accident or very nearly suffer a defeat.

Literal Meaning: Using a very sharp razor to cut one’s own or someone else’s facial hair, so that afterward one can no longer feel any hair or stubble.

Usage: Informal, spoken general American English.

Origin: Late 19^th - Century, American English – This expression is from the early nineteenth century and reflects the narrow margin between smoothly shaved skin and a nasty cut from the razor. It morphed to mean any narrow escape from danger. Interestingly, “a close shave” was in much earlier days equated with miserliness. Erasmus’s 1523 collection of adages has it, “He shaves right to the quick,” meaning he makes the barber give him a very close shave so that he will not need another for some time. A “close call” means almost the same thing and dates from the late 19^th century. Two synonymous modern clichés are “too close for comfort” and “too close to home.”

Why is this funny? In this photo, we see a barber using an old-fashioned straight razor to shave the guy in his chair. After the latter complains that the barber almost cut off his nose, we learn that the barber only recently graduated from barber college. The shave was so close that the barber almost cut off a nose in addition to the hair on the guy’s face. The key word is “almost”. Luckily the customer’s nose is intact, but it was a very “close shave”.

Sample sentence: It was “a close shave” because the bomb which was left in the trash can in Times Square, only sputtered but did not actually explode.