Definition of "carve"

carve

/kɑɹv/

verb
third-person singular simple present carves, present participle carving, simple past carved, past participle carved or (archaic) carven
1. (archaic) To cut.
  Quotations
  My good blade carves the casques of men, / My tough lance thrusteth sure, / My strength is as the strength of ten, / Because my heart is pure.
  1834 September (date written), Alfred Tennyson, “Sir Galahad”, in Poems. […], volume II, London: Edward Moxon, […], stanza I, page 174
2. To cut meat in order to serve it.
3. To shape to sculptural effect; to produce (a work) by cutting, or to cut (a material) into a finished work, especially with cuts that are curved rather than only straight slices.
  Quotations
  The facades of the buildings fronting upon the avenue within the wall were richly carven […] .
  1920, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Thuvia, Maiden of Mars‎, The Gutenberg Project, published 2008
  The half-dozen pieces […] were painted white and carved with festoons of flowers, birds and cupids. To display them the walls had been tinted a vivid blue which had now faded, but the carpet, which had evidently been stored and recently relaid, retained its original turquoise.
  1963, Margery Allingham, chapter I, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus
4. (snowboarding) To perform a series of turns without pivoting, so that the tip and tail of the snowboard take the same path.
5. (figuratively) To take or make, as by cutting; to provide.
  Quotations
  […] who could easily have carved themselves their own food.
  1692–1717, Robert South, Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, 6th edition, volumes (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: […] J[ames] Bettenham, for Jonah Bowyer, […], published 1727
  The Reds carved the first opening of the second period as Glen Johnson's pull-back found David Ngog but the Frenchman hooked wide from six yards.
  2010 December 29, Sam Sheringham, “Liverpool 0 - 1 Wolverhampton”, in BBC‎
6. To lay out; to contrive; to design; to plan.
  Quotations
  Lie ten nights awake carving the fashion of a new doublet.
  1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “Much Adoe about Nothing”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act II, scene iii]
noun
plural carves
1. (obsolete) A carucate.
  Quotations
  ... half a carve of arable land in Ballyncore, one carve of arable land in Pales, a quarter of arable land in Clonnemeagh, half a carve of arable land in Ballyfaden, half a carve of arable land in Ballymadran, ...
  1862, Calendar of the Patent and Close Rolls of Chancery in Ireland
  Whereof John de Ditton holds a moiety of the village for half a carve of land.
  1868, John Harland (editor), Wapentake of West Derby, in Remains, Historical and Literary, Connected with the Palatine Counties of Lancaster and Chester, (translating a Latin text c. 1320-46), page 31
2. The act of carving

Definition of "carve"

carve

verb

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noun

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