Shiv (weapon)


Shiv, also chiv, schiv, and shivvie, is a homemade knife-like weapon, especially one fashioned in prison. The word is almost certainly evolved from 17th-century "chive". The related verb shiv means "to stab someone", a shivver being a criminal who attacks victims with a knife. An improvised prison knife is also often called a shank.

Usage

The word is prison slang for an improvised knife. A shiv can be anything from a glass shard with fabric wrapped around one end to form a handle, to a razor blade stuck in the end of a toothbrush.
In the 1950s, British criminal Billy Hill described his use of the shiv:
In the Federal Bureau of Prisons, weapons, sharpened instruments, and knives are considered contraband and their possession is punishable as a greatest severity level prohibited act.