The Collaborative International Dictionary
Carve \Carve\ (k[aum]rv), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Carved (k[aum]rvd); p. pr. & vb. n. Carving.] [AS. ceorfan to cut, carve; akin to D. kerven, G. kerben, Dan. karve, Sw. karfva, and to Gr. gra`fein to write, orig. to scratch, and E. -graphy. Cf. Graphic.]
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To cut. [Obs.]
Or they will carven the shepherd's throat.
--Spenser. -
To cut, as wood, stone, or other material, in an artistic or decorative manner; to sculpture; to engrave.
Carved with figures strange and sweet.
--Coleridge. -
To make or shape by cutting, sculpturing, or engraving; to form; as, to carve a name on a tree.
An angel carved in stone.
--Tennyson.We carved not a line, and we raised not a stone.
--C. Wolfe. To cut into small pieces or slices, as meat at table; to divide for distribution or apportionment; to apportion. ``To carve a capon.''
--Shak.-
To cut: to hew; to mark as if by cutting.
My good blade carved the casques of men.
--Tennyson.A million wrinkles carved his skin.
--Tennyson. -
To take or make, as by cutting; to provide.
Who could easily have carved themselves their own food.
--South. -
To lay out; to contrive; to design; to plan.
Lie ten nights awake carving the fashion of a new doublet.
--Shak.To carve out, to make or get by cutting, or as if by cutting; to cut out. ``[Macbeth] with his brandished steel . . . carved out his passage.''
--Shak.Fortunes were carved out of the property of the crown.
--Macaulay.
Usage examples of "to carve out".
So he sees his big chance to carve out his own little column for posterity.
The gardens were mostly overgrown, a wild and junglelike tangle, although here, around Teague's mansion, some effort had been made to keep the place neatened up, to create not only a setting worthy of Mocsin's lord and master, but also to carve out a loose kind of security zone around the house.
He cursed himself for his inability to carve out in words the stone forms that he felt in his innards.
They had perhaps three significant advantages that enabled them to carve out one of the more powerful empires of the day: horses, which had enabled all the Indo-Europeans to prosper.
The Earth Mother was leaving Her children to find their own way, to carve out their own lives, to pay the consequences of their own actions -- to come of age.
It is a drive that represents for everybody involved not only a daring, even a foolhardy, adventure, but a part of the American Dream -- the attempt to carve out of the last remaining wilderness a new life.
When the Duke of Freetown's defectors tried to carve out that abortive duchy .