razor

name

1. A surname.

noun

Etymology: From Middle English rasour, from Old French rasour, from raser (“to scrape, to shave”). More at rat. By surface analysis, raze + -or. Displaced the native Old English sċierseax (literally “shaving knife”).

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.

   “These are fellows who shun the three-, four- and five-blade contraptions and canned goops for an older mode of shaving that they insist remains the ideal: a straight razor or a safety razor with a double-edged blade, and a fine English cream lathered and applied with a badger-hair brush.”

   “The box was jam packed full o' gifts for each manjack of us: razors, aftershave, toothbrushes, an' books.”

3. The sharp tusk of a wild boar.
4. A conceptual device that allows one to shave away unlikely explanations for a phenomenon.

   “Occam's razor, Hanlon's razor”

verb

Etymology: From Middle English rasour, from Old French rasour, from raser (“to scrape, to shave”). More at rat. By surface analysis, raze + -or. Displaced the native Old English sċierseax (literally “shaving knife”).

1. To shave with a razor.

   “He thought likewise, that what with razoring and tanning, and the change of his clothes, he was not likely to be recognised.”

   “Lord Tywin did not believe in half measures. He razored his lip and chin as well, but kept his side-whiskers, two great thickets of wiry golden hair that covered most of his cheeks from ear to jaw.”