carve

Formscarves, carving, carved

Pluralcarves

1. 1
   verbtransitive

   To cut cooked meat into slices or portions for serving.

   Could you carve the chicken while I set the table?

   The chef carved the ham at the table while guests watched.

   Similarslice, cut

2. 2
   verbtransitive

   To produce a sculpture or finished object by cutting into wood, stone, or similar material, often with curved rather than straight cuts.

   Sculptors carve marble into lifelike figures.

   He carved an intricate pattern along the lid of the wooden box.

   Similarsculpt, chisel, whittle, engrave

   Note

   Sculptural work keeps an older verb form alive: carven, the archaic past participle. Edgar Rice Burroughs uses it in Thuvia, Maiden of Mars (1920), where facades are "richly carven." Everyday English says carved, so carven is a deliberate, ornamental choice. Two constructions are worth telling apart. You carve something into a surface, as with a name in a tree. You carve a surface with a design, as with pieces carved with festoons of flowers.

3. 3
   verbfigurativelytransitive

   To create or secure something for oneself through deliberate effort, as if by cutting it out.

   Immigrants carve new lives in unfamiliar cities.

   He carved a successful career out of a modest hobby.

   Similarforge, build, make, create

   Note

   The figurative cut makes room or opportunity by effort. Robert South's sermons already describe people who "could easily have carved themselves their own food," with a reflexive pronoun marking who benefits. Football writing keeps the sense lively: in Sam Sheringham's 2010 BBC report, a side "carved the first opening" by cutting a path through the defense. The most familiar modern frame adds out, as in carving out a career.

4. 4
   nouncountable

   An act or instance of cutting, slicing, or shaping something.

   A single carve of the blade separated the joint cleanly.

   Her first carve into the clay set the shape of the whole piece.

   Similarcut, slice, stroke

5. 5
   verbtransitive

   To lay out, contrive, design, or plan something.

   Strategists carve detailed plans well before any action begins.

   The architects carved an ambitious design for the city center.

   Similardevise, design, plan, draft

   Note

   Here the cutting happens in the head. Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing has a man lie ten nights awake "carving the fashion of a new doublet," designing a garment's cut before any cloth is touched. Keep it apart from the "carve out" sense: that one secures something for oneself, while this one only devises it.

6. 6
   verbintransitive

   To link turns on a snowboard without pivoting or skidding, so the board's tip and tail follow the same continuous path.

   Experienced snowboarders carve cleanly across the slope without skidding.

   He carved through the fresh powder all the way down to the lift.

   Note

   Snowboarders use the word for the cleanest kind of turn. Instead of pivoting or skidding, the rider tilts the board onto its edge and lets its sidecut steer, so tip and tail trace a single arc. Riders use it to separate that technique from a skidded turn, and it works with or without an object: you carve a turn, or simply carve down the slope.

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