carve
to cut (a solid material) so as to form something: to carve a piece of pine.
to form from a solid material by cutting: to carve a statue out of stone.
to cut into slices or pieces, as a roast of meat.
to decorate with designs or figures cut on the surface: The top of the box was beautifully carved with figures of lions and unicorns.
to cut (a design, figures, etc.) on a surface: Figures of lions and unicorns were carved on the top of the box.
to make or create for oneself (often followed by out): He carved out a career in business.
to carve figures, designs, etc.
to cut meat.
Origin of carve
1Other words from carve
- carver, noun
- re·carve, verb, re·carved, re·carv·ing.
- sem·i·carved, adjective
- un·carved, adjective
- un·der·carve, verb (used with object), un·der·carved, un·der·carv·ing.
- well-carved, adjective
Words Nearby carve
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use carve in a sentence
Operating successfully in a competitive market, the website operators discovered tremendous growth opportunities for the business if a larger market share could be carved out.
India, Brazil, South Africa, Nigeria, and Indonesia are all deciding whether to try to carve out their own digital agendas or to act more as fence-sitters, playing China, the US, and the EU against one another.
Covid-19 and the geopolitics of American decline | Katie McLean | August 19, 2020 | MIT Technology ReviewRivers can only carve out valleys if the water is running downhill.
Mars may not have been the warm, wet planet we thought it was | Neel Patel | August 7, 2020 | MIT Technology ReviewThe Tchambuli tended to put men in the role of artists who spent their days carving wooden masks and dancing, while the women fished and prepared food.
Such attempts to use information flows, in theory or practice, to carve nature at its joints are “the beginning of sketching out ideas and concepts that could be potentially foundational for new areas of biology,” Hoyal Cuthill said.
What Is an Individual? Biology Seeks Clues in Information Theory. | Jordana Cepelewicz | July 16, 2020 | Quanta Magazine
Al Qaeda has never managed to carve out a large chunk of real estate to call its own—in Afghanistan it was a guest of the Taliban.
Her new paradigm leads her to carve up shibboleths and heroes alike.
Naomi Klein’s ‘This Changes Everything’ Will Change Nothing | Michael Signer | November 17, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTI sort of got lucky in that I was able to carve a niche for myself.
Juliette Lewis on Hollywood, Why the MSM Hates Scientology, and Masturbating to George Clooney | Marlow Stern | September 19, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTIn Brazil, there was a microcosmic slice of the kind of public role he is attempting to carve.
Prince Harry Should Be King: The Royal Family’s Ace Card | Tim Teeman | June 27, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTCould it just be that prison itself conditions a sort of pavlovian reaction to carve chess pieces?
You could carve him to pieces without hearing a cheep, if he decided to keep his mouth shut.
Raw Gold | Bertrand W. SinclairA pair of carvers, laid with my cover, tell me that I shall have to carve the ham which is here eaten with the chicken.
Friend Mac Donald | Max O'RellHoudon then returned to France and proceeded to carve a Carrara marble statue of his subject.
Hallowed Heritage: The Life of Virginia | Dorothy M. TorpeyThe painter cannot put sounds upon a canvas, nor can the sculptor carve from marble an odor or a taste.
English: Composition and Literature | W. F. (William Franklin) WebsterHe was yet young, vigorous and ambitious, and with the help of heaven he would carve out his own fortune.
Adrift on the Pacific | Edward S. Ellis
British Dictionary definitions for carve
/ (kɑːv) /
(tr) to cut or chip in order to form something: to carve wood
to decorate or form (something) by cutting or chipping: to carve statues
to slice (meat) into pieces: to carve a turkey
Origin of carve
1Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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