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:
Everyone who the company hires to engrave starts with zero experience, and part of the challenge is the process itself.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 14, 2026
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
A love lock is a padlock couples can engrave with their names before adding to a bridge, fence or installation at a special destination.
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 16, 2023
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
This was something Lexie had heard her mother say enough times—into the telephone to Mrs. McCullough, anytime the case came up—to engrave it in her mind as fact.
From "Little Fires Everywhere" by Celeste Ng
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
Instead of smiling, which keeps the cheeks stretched and smooth, we frown, which keeps them contracted and engraves wrinkles on them.
From Rambles in Womanland by Max O'Rell
Another popular Silicon Valley term, “SCALING,” was engraved in all caps on each’s crown pusher.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 25, 2026
Users on social media noticed the shape of the stadium engraved on the medal appeared to be carved in the wrong likeness.
From BBC ● Aug. 23, 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
Archaeologists working at several sites in southern Africa have uncovered hundreds of unusual pieces of engraved ostrich eggshell.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 9, 2026
I guess Dad will just have to open an empty box on Christmas morning because I definitely won’t have enough money to buy him that engraved picture frame.
From "Shine!" by J.J. and Chris Grabenstein
A stone engraving of the Declaration of Independence.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 24, 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
Erbium and neodymium are also important in making lasers for industrial engraving and cutting.
From Barron's ● Feb. 4, 2026
The publishers – Cadell and Davies – paid 20 guineas for the new painting which they planned to use as an engraving in all future editions of Burns' books.
From BBC ● Jan. 25, 2026
Over and over, Maria sank the sharp point of the wood-handled engraving tool, called a burin, into the polished metal, carving up tiny curls of shining copper.
From "The Girl Who Drew Butterflies: How Maria Merian's Art Changed Science" by Joyce Sidman
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.
