engrave
Americanverb (used with object)
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engraves,
present (3rd person singular)
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engraved,
past participle, past
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engraving
present participle
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to chase (letters, designs, etc.) on a hard surface, as of metal, stone, or the end grain of wood.
She had the jeweler engrave her name on the back of the watch.
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to print from such a surface.
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to mark or ornament with incised letters, designs, etc..
He engraved the ring in a floral pattern.
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to impress deeply; infix.
That image is engraved on my mind.
verb
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to inscribe (a design, writing, etc) onto (a block, plate, or other surface used for printing) by carving, etching with acid, or other process
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to print (designs or characters) from a printing plate so made
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to fix deeply or permanently in the mind
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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engravernoun
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underengravernoun
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reengraveverb (used with object)
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superengraveverb (used with object)
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engravableadjective
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unengravedadjective
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well-engravedadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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engravesimple
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engravessimple
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have engravedperfect
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has engravedperfect
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am engravingprogressive
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are engravingprogressive
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is engravingprogressive
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have been engravingperfect progressive
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has been engravingperfect progressive
Past
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engravedsimple
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had engravedperfect
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was engravingprogressive
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were engravingprogressive
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had been engravingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of engrave
Explanation
To engrave is to carve into something, especially stone. Sometimes people have messages engraved inside their wedding rings, their iPods, or any other rock-hard surface that can handle it. Words are engraved on tombstones to honor the people who died. Grave used to mean “to dig or carve” but no one uses it that way anymore because they would say engrave instead. Anytime a hard surface has a message or picture cut into, it was engraved. Sometimes engraving isn’t physical. A super fun birthday when your long lost grandmother rode in on a stallion could be engraved in your mind forever. Both kinds of engraving leave an impression.
Vocabulary lists containing engrave
Frindle
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The Marvels
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The Renaissance and Reformation, Lessons 1–2
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
It took three years of training before he was allowed to engrave small pieces for customers.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 9, 2025
Before, to engrave the circuits on the silicon plates used in electronic devices like mobile phones, it was necessary to use polluting chemical products.
From Science Daily ● Jan. 24, 2024
I also love the fact that they could have put it in a font, in something computer-generated, but they chose to engrave it in my handwriting.
From Scientific American ● Jul. 7, 2023
Wear Jennie Yoon’s locket as a blank oval — she also sells a heart-shaped locket — or engrave it with a signature letter.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 2, 2022
“If you help us, your name goes on the key, too. You couldn’t engrave it yourself, though. It’s bad luck. Who else at the store does engravings?”
From "The Last Last-Day-of-Summer" by Lamar Giles
Nolan’s “Odyssey” engraves marvelous images onto the ancient oral poem.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 15, 2026
Employing a nano-imprinting process that engraves the pattern like a stamp, the team achieved the rapid and inexpensive production of metalenses that are 20,000 times larger than conventional ones.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 12, 2024
He said that many local business in the area, including his own, which engraves stone, had offered their time and resources to restore the structure.
From New York Times ● Jul. 6, 2022
A machine engraves information on an ingot of 99.98 percent pure palladium at the Krastsvetmet non-ferrous metals plant in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk, Russia March 10, 2022.
From Reuters ● May 15, 2022
Master Lucas, who engraves in copper, invited me as his guest.
From Memoirs of Journeys to Venice and the Low Countries by Rudolf Tombo
Once a winner accepts their prize on TV, they are taken across the street to get their awards engraved, take photos and chat with reporters.
From BBC ● Sep. 15, 2026
The markers were engraved with butterflies, with pairs of butterfly-shaped flower arrangements next to the graves along with bouquets containing a mix of white and purple roses, daisies and carnations.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 28, 2026
The hauntingly lighted displays include the engraved jaw of a sacrifice victim and footprints embedded in stucco, as if the Aztec teens had just run upstairs for a break.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 28, 2026
This does not mean organoids have memories like we tend to think of them -- such as recalling something from childhood -- but simply that their past is "engraved" on a cellular level, Arlotta emphasised.
From Barron's ● Aug. 19, 2026
And there are countless other headstones engraved with names he does not recognize, and more that have been so worn by time and wind that they are illegible, their owners long forgotten.
From "The Night Circus" by Erin Morgenstern
At the head of the coffin was an engraving of a cross that she wore, which was designed by jeweller Spencer Morgan.
From BBC ● Aug. 17, 2026
The Hockey Hall of Fame told the Associated Press it is not directly involved with the engraving.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 10, 2026
When I think of people piling into funds with hot recent returns, I can’t help seeing this early engraving in my mind’s eye.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 7, 2026
More than 40,000 years ago, early humans were already engraving symbols onto tools, figurines, and other objects.
From Science Daily ● Feb. 25, 2026
Why, then, did Copley show Revere at a workbench with his engraving tools spread out before him, holding a teapot as the object of his contemplation and offering it to us for our inspection?
From "History of Art, Volume 1" by H.W. Janson
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
