carve
Americanverb (used with object)
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carves,
present (3rd person singular)
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carved,
past participle, past
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carving
present participle
-
to cut (a solid material) so as to form something.
to carve a piece of pine.
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to form from a solid material by cutting.
to carve a statue out of stone.
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to cut into slices or pieces, as a roast of meat.
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to decorate with designs or figures cut on the surface.
The top of the box was beautifully carved with figures of lions and unicorns.
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to cut (a design, figures, etc.) on a surface.
Figures of lions and unicorns were carved on the top of the box.
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to make or create for oneself (often followed byout ).
He carved out a career in business.
verb (used without object)
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carves,
present (3rd person singular)
-
carved,
past participle, past
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carving
present participle
-
to carve figures, designs, etc.
-
to cut meat.
verb
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(tr) to cut or chip in order to form something
to carve wood
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to decorate or form (something) by cutting or chipping
to carve statues
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to slice (meat) into pieces
to carve a turkey
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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carvernoun
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recarveverb
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undercarveverb (used with object)
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semicarvedadjective
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uncarvedadjective
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well-carvedadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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carvesimple
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carvessimple
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have carvedperfect
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has carvedperfect
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am carvingprogressive
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are carvingprogressive
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is carvingprogressive
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have been carvingperfect progressive
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has been carvingperfect progressive
Past
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carvedsimple
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had carvedperfect
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was carvingprogressive
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were carvingprogressive
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had been carvingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
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
Explanation
When you cut a design into a piece of wood or marble, you carve it. Headstone engravers carve people's names and the dates of their births and deaths into gravestones. You might carve your initials into the tree in your backyard, or carve a walking stick out of a large branch. Some artists work by carving shapes from clay or granite, and a chef learns to carve, or precisely cut up, large cuts of meat and poultry. The Old English root word is ceorfan, "to cut, slay, carve, or engrave."
Vocabulary lists containing carve
On a Pedestal: Marble-ous Words for Sculpture
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
"The Secret Water"
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
"Indian Summer Sun" and "Almost Evenly Divided"
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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:
Andrew Jackson once threw a party at the White House, and 10,000 Washington residents showed up to help themselves to whatever they could carve from a 1,000-pound block of cheddar cheese.
From Salon ● Sep. 11, 2026
State lawmakers routinely carve out environmental exemptions for proposed sports stadiums, sometimes in the closing days of the legislative session.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 31, 2026
Celtic take a huge step towards the Champions League as two stunning Camilo Duran strikes help carve out a commanding first-leg play-off lead against LASK.
From BBC ● Aug. 19, 2026
The CPI and PPI might not carve a Fed rate hike in stone, but they could be the biggest building blocks.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 11, 2026
Live like an Eskimo—hunt and carve and be with Tornait.
From "Julie of the Wolves" by Jean Craighead George
A real plan carves out a protected reserve for that upfront, so the late-life risk is handled and the earlier spending is guilt-free.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 16, 2026
The light carves the pattern into material on the wafer called photoresist.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 27, 2026
As development elsewhere carves up habitat, Fales said, the public and private lands his cattle graze are increasingly shared by elk, bears, mountain lions and other species.
From Salon ● Dec. 4, 2025
Rather than walk in the footsteps of its predecessors, Lux carves its own, unique path - harnessing Rosalía's classical training at the prestigious Catalonia College of Music.
From BBC ● Nov. 6, 2025
“I made it. My grampa carves them, and I paint them. He was a pretty famous angler. People around here call him Kingfish. I’d love a nickname like that.”
From "Hope Springs" by Jaime Berry
The impact carved out a crater 728 feet wide, roughly the length of two football fields.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 18, 2026
The survivors carved their unspeakable grief into the landscape with the erection of thousands of war memorials.
From BBC ● Sep. 17, 2026
The new map carved the district held by Calvert, a Corona Republican and 33-year fixture in Congress, into three different pieces.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 9, 2026
Granted, the bar for Netflix movies has long since descended past Hell’s ninth circle, burrowing so low that it’s carved out a 10th reserved for the streamer’s original titles.
From Salon ● Sep. 2, 2026
I took in the decorations: carved wooden lanterns and heavy painted scrolls hanging from the arbor terrace, screens with images of birds of paradise and other floral designs placed around the tables.
From "The Red Car to Hollywood" by Jennie Liu
Instead of building obvious nests, they can spend nearly their entire lives hidden inside beams, framing, furniture, and other dry wood, slowly carving out galleries as a colony grows.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 19, 2026
Twenty years ago, the hot topics were a smoking ban and carving out space for traditional Bavarian music.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 7, 2026
In Kanazawa, workers dressed in full-body overalls haul large blocks of ice across the factory floor, before starting on the delicate work of carving perfect spheres, cubes and rectangular blocks with cut corners.
From Barron's ● Sep. 6, 2026
The satellite image shows an enormous chunk of the glacier has fallen away, carving an enormous path of rock and debris where water rushed through the valley.
From BBC ● Aug. 28, 2026
So they had to live differently, carving out communities in the spaces they felt they could defend.
From "The Marrow Thieves" by Cherie Dimaline
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.
