chives

Noun (1)

chive (plural chives)

1. A perennial plant, Allium schoenoprasum, related to the onion.
2. (attributive, in plural) The leaves of this plant used as a herb.
   • Chive herb. (attributive use)
3. (Trinidad-and-Tobago, dialectal) The spring onion; the green onion; the scallion.

Noun (2)

chive (plural chives)

1. A piece cut off; sliver.
2. (obsolete) The filament which supports the anther of a flower; stamen, especially of saffron.
   • […] in the place wher he bled, Saffron was after found to grow, whereupon the people séeyng the color of the chiue as it stoode, (although I doubt not but it grewe there long before) adiudged it to come to the bloude of Crocus, and therefore they gaue it his name.1577, Raphael Holinshed et al., The Chronicles of England, Scotlande, and Ireland, London: John Hunne, Book 3, Chapter 14, “Of English Saffron,”

Noun (3)

chive (plural chives)

1. (thieves' cant) A knife.
   • For when that he hath nubbed as, / And our friends tip him no cole, / He takes his chive and cuts us down, / And tips us into a hole.1712, “A Budg and Snudg Song”, in Farmer, John Stephen, editor, Musa Pedestris, published 1896, page 32

See all 10 meanings of chive