- Carve
- 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}.]
1. To cut. [Obs.]
[1913 Webster]
Or they will carven the shepherd's throat. --Spenser. [1913 Webster]
2. To cut, as wood, stone, or other material, in an artistic or decorative manner; to sculpture; to engrave. [1913 Webster]
Carved with figures strange and sweet. --Coleridge. [1913 Webster]
3. To make or shape by cutting, sculpturing, or engraving; to form; as, to carve a name on a tree. [1913 Webster]
An angel carved in stone. --Tennyson. [1913 Webster]
We carved not a line, and we raised not a stone. --C. Wolfe. [1913 Webster]
4. To cut into small pieces or slices, as meat at table; to divide for distribution or apportionment; to apportion. ``To carve a capon.'' --Shak. [1913 Webster]
5. To cut: to hew; to mark as if by cutting. [1913 Webster]
My good blade carved the casques of men. --Tennyson. [1913 Webster]
A million wrinkles carved his skin. --Tennyson. [1913 Webster]
6. To take or make, as by cutting; to provide. [1913 Webster]
Who could easily have carved themselves their own food. --South. [1913 Webster]
7. To lay out; to contrive; to design; to plan. [1913 Webster]
Lie ten nights awake carving the fashion of a new doublet. --Shak. [1913 Webster]
{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. [1913 Webster]
Fortunes were carved out of the property of the crown. --Macaulay. [1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English. 2000.
