/kɑɹv/, /kɑːv/
OriginFrom Middle English kerven, from Old English ceorfan, from Proto-West Germanic *kerban, from Proto-Germanic *kerbaną, from Proto-Indo-European *gerbʰ- (“to scratch”). Cognate with West Frisian kerve, Dutch kerven, Low German karven, German kerben (“to notch”); also Old Prussian gīrbin (“number”), Old Church Slavonic жрѣбии (žrěbii, “lot, tallymark”), Ancient Greek γράφειν (gráphein, “to scratch, etch”).
- archaicTo cut.
“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.”
- To cut meat in order to serve it.
“You carve the roast and I’ll serve the vegetables.”
- 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.
“to carve a name into a tree”
“The facades of the buildings fronting upon the avenue within the wall were richly carven[…].”
“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 ha”
- To perform a series of turns without pivoting, so that the tip and tail of the snowboard take the same path.
- figurativelyTo take or make, as by cutting; to provide.
“[…] who could easily have carved themselves their own food.”
“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.”
- To lay out; to contrive; to design; to plan.
“Lie ten nights awake carving the fashion of a new doublet.”
- obsoleteA carucate.
“... 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 Bal”
“Whereof John de Ditton holds a moiety of the village for half a carve of land.”
- The act of carving
“Give that turkey a careful carve.”
Formscarves(present, singular, third-person) · carving(participle, present) · carved(past) · carved(participle, past) · carven(archaic, participle, past) · carves(plural)