carve

[kahrv]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR carve ON THESAURUS.COM

verb (used with object), carved, carv·ing.

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.

verb (used without object), carved, carv·ing.

to carve figures, designs, etc.

to cut meat.

Origin of carve

before 1000; Middle English kerven, Old English ceorfan to cut; cognate with Middle Low German kerven, German kerben, Greek gráphein to mark, write; see graph

Related formscarv·er, nounre·carve, verb, re·carved, re·carv·ing.sem·i·carved, adjectiveun·carved, adjectiveun·der·carve, verb (used with object), un·der·carved, un·der·carv·ing.well-carved, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for carved

chiseled, sculpted, cut, modeled, graven, furrowed, hewn, grooved, hewed, graved, carven, etched

Examples from the Web for carved

Contemporary Examples of carved

They carved a refuge out of the wilderness and then, in 200 years, built it into the most powerful nation on earth.
Mario Cuomo, Always Moving Us Toward the Light
Mike Barnicle
January 4, 2015
Many thousands of years ago, glacial floods swept through the area and carved out the sloping sides of the current grounds.
Brooklyn’s Gangster Graveyard
Nina Strochlic
October 23, 2014
He rests lavishly, depicted in a marble sarcophagus that stares up for eternity at the carved depictions of his life story.
Brooklyn’s Gangster Graveyard
Nina Strochlic
October 23, 2014
I have been around a large variety of people: men, women, children, funny, dramatic—he carved his own avenue in the world.
How Mork Melted the Fonz: Henry Winkler Recalls Robin Williams’s Storming ‘Happy Days’ Debut
Tim Teeman
August 12, 2014
But now the great prairies had all been overgrazed or carved into farms; there was little suitable rangeland left to occupy.
Lake Bacon: The Story of The Man Who Wanted Us to Eat Mississippi Hippos
Jon Mooallem
August 10, 2014

Historical Examples of carved

In the garden of Anaxagoras, you will find a statue of Pallas, carved from an olive-tree.
Philothea
Lydia Maria Child
On the wall opposite the house the name of "Gladstone" is carved.
The Grand Old Man
Richard B. Cook
The edges and corners of the box were carved with most wonderful skill.
The Paradise of Children
Nathaniel Hawthorne
The moon shone on them; they looked as if they were carved with marble.
Quaint Courtships
Various
We carved off a supply from both, and saved the skins, and hove the rest overboard.
Tom Sawyer Abroad
Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens)

British Dictionary definitions for carved

carve

verb

(tr) to cut or chip in order to form somethingto carve wood

to decorate or form (something) by cutting or chippingto carve statues

to slice (meat) into piecesto carve a turkey

Word Origin for carve

Old English ceorfan; related to Old Frisian kerva, Middle High German kerben to notch

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for carved

carve

Old English ceorfan (class III strong verb; past tense cearf, past participle corfen) "to cut, cut down, slay; to carve, cut out, engrave," from West Germanic *kerfan (cf. Old Frisian kerva, Middle Dutch and Dutch kerven, German kerben "to cut, notch"), from PIE root *gerbh- "to scratch," making carve the English cognate of Greek graphein "to write," originally "to scratch" on clay tablets with a stylus.

Once extensively used, most senses now usurped by cut (v.). Meaning specialized to sculpture, meat, etc., by 16c. Related: Carved; carving. Original strong conjugation has been abandoned, but archaic carven lingers.