Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To push quickly, forcefully, or roughly: synonym: push.
  • intransitive verb To put (something) roughly in a place.
  • intransitive verb To push someone or something with force.
  • intransitive verb To move forward roughly, often by shoving someone.
  • noun The act of shoving; a push.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To press or push along by the direct application of strength continuously exerted; particularly, to push (something) so as to make it slide or move along the surface of another body, either by the hand or by an instrument: as, to shove a table along the floor; to shove a boat into the water.
  • To prop; support.
  • To push roughly or without ceremony; press against; jostle.
  • To push; bring into prominence.
  • Synonyms To push, propel, drive. See thrust.
  • To press or push forward; push; drive; move along.
  • To move in a boat by pushing with a pole or oar which reaches to the bottom of the water or to the shore: often with off or from.
  • To germinate; shoot: also, to cast the first teeth.
  • noun In billiards, the more common designation of the push. Degrees of strength have also given it other names. When it was foul in America to push so gently as to control the balls, the strenuous stroke was called Bowery in New York city, Germantown in Philadelphia, and timber-lick in the West.
  • noun The act of shoving, pushing, or pressing by strength continuously exerted; a strong push, generally along or as if along a surface.
  • noun The central woody part of the stem of flax or hemp; the boon.
  • noun A forward movement of packed and piled ice; especially, such a movement in the St. Lawrence river at Montreal, caused in the early winter by the descent of the ground-ice from the Lachine Rapids above, which, on reaching the islands below the city, is packed, thus forming a dam.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To drive along by the direct and continuous application of strength; to push; especially, to push (a body) so as to make it move along the surface of another body
  • transitive verb To push along, aside, or away, in a careless or rude manner; to jostle.
  • p. p. of shove.
  • intransitive verb To push or drive forward; to move onward by pushing or jostling.
  • intransitive verb To move off or along by an act pushing, as with an oar a pole used by one in a boat; sometimes with off.
  • noun The act of shoving; a forcible push.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb To push, especially roughly or with force
  • verb poker, by ellipsis To make an all-in bet.
  • verb slang To pass (counterfeit money).
  • noun A rough push.
  • noun poker slang An all-in bet.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb press or force
  • verb push roughly
  • noun the act of shoving (giving a push to someone or something)
  • verb come into rough contact with while moving

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English shoven, from Old English scūfan.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Old English scūfan, from Proto-Germanic *skeubanan (compare West Frisian skowe, Dutch schuiven, German schieben), from Proto-Indo-European *skeubʰ- (compare Lithuanian skùbti ‘to hurry’, Polish skubać ‘to pluck’, Albanian humb ‘to lose’).

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Examples

  • If doing X (or not doing X) will result in death or a disaster, a shove is appropriate.

    The Volokh Conspiracy » More on Behavioral Economics and Regulatory Policy: 2010

  • He turned up at that moment, and frankly gloated over the success of what he called shove the seventh, and twist the first.

    Ghosts I Have Met and Some Others John Kendrick Bangs 1892

  • When considering whether a nudge or shove is appropriate, it would seem a more basic question needs to be addressed.

    The Volokh Conspiracy » More on Behavioral Economics and Regulatory Policy: 2010

  • The "train" contained a super-chilled magnet and it was propelled by a shove from the demo-guy.

    updatey thing melted_snowball 2009

  • What, if push comes to shove, is your all-time favorite album?

    I wouldn’t’ve guessed | clusterflock 2009

  • This kind of violence has always been instigated with a hard shove from the economic royalists, who would rather have the lower classes killing each other on the courthouse lawns rather than going inside the courthouses to challenge the structural inequalities they find so profitable.

    BROAD CAST 8 SEPTEMBER 2007: REALITY OR REAL-LITE? Maggie Jochild 2007

  • Garza says the message would be, "Shove it," as in shove it down the throats of the hitters.

    Garza keeps perspective in the family 2006

  • A child stands before the ball, and then a park guide gives it a shove from a specific angle, so that it comes careering back at the child's face only to stop just in front of it.

    04.04 M-mv 2004

  • A child stands before the ball, and then a park guide gives it a shove from a specific angle, so that it comes careering back at the child's face only to stop just in front of it.

    04.04 M-mv 2004

  • A child stands before the ball, and then a park guide gives it a shove from a specific angle, so that it comes careering back at the child's face only to stop just in front of it.

    04.04 M-mv 2004

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