Talk:clean-shaven

RFM discussion: March 2014–February 2016

The following discussion has been moved from Wiktionary:Requests for moves, mergers and splits (permalink).

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clean-shaven

"Having no beard or mustache" and "Having had facial hair completely removed." are the same thing. Renard Migrant (talk) 13:34, 29 March 2014 (UTC)

It's not obvious that they are.

I don't even know what "completely" and "facial hair" are supposed to mean when used together in this context. Does "facial hair" as people use the word normally include the follicle, the portion below the skin? If it does then "complete" removal would at least require a depilatory.

Can I be clean-shaven if I don't have a beard or mustache, but haven't shaven for three days? What if I did a bad job shaving? This seems like a case for sharpening the definitions by RfV's. Keep, cite and revise, or RfV. DCDuring TALK 13:51, 29 March 2014 (UTC)

most dictionaries seem to have only one sense, if they have the term at all, but AHD has two defs:

1. Having the beard or hair shaved off.
2. Having recently shaved.

These each seem better than our corresponding definitions. DCDuring TALK 13:55, 29 March 2014 (UTC)

The women and children are not clean-shaven although they are "having no beard or mustache". Thus the first definition should go, whatever else happens. --Hekaheka (talk) 17:49, 25 January 2015 (UTC)

Also there are plenty of hits for "clean-shaven leg", "clean-shaven chest" and other formulations. This is not unique to the face. Since this request has lingered since March of last year (which is literally forever in Internet years), I'm boldly combining both defs to say Having had hair completely removed, especially facial hair that is freshly shaved. If somebody really wants to make this two defs as AHD says, I guess that wouldn't bother me, but I don't think it's really ideal -- no one really uses "clean-shaven" to mean "having recently shaved" unless they also mean "shaved completely, usually the face", which is also a core part of the other def. WurdSnatcher (talk) 15:00, 15 October 2015 (UTC)

I was (and am) advocating a merging of the two above senses, not opposing the addition of more senses to cover usage like you've just come up with. Renard Migrant (talk) 18:26, 1 February 2016 (UTC)

• How is this a request for a move, merger, or split? DCDuring TALK 15:12, 15 October 2015 (UTC)

• Merged (a while ago, and recently refined by me). - -sche (discuss) 18:22, 1 February 2016 (UTC)