carve
/kɑːv//kɑɹv/
carve verb: to cut.
Verb
carve (third-person singular simple present carves, present participle carving, simple past carved, past participle carved or (archaic) carven)
- To 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.1834 September (date written), Alfred Tennyson, “Sir Galahad”, in Poems. […], volume II, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, stanza I, page 174
- 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[…].1920, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Thuvia, Maiden of Mars, The Gutenberg Project, published 2008
- To perform a series of turns without pivoting, so that the tip and tail of the snowboard take the same path.
- To take or make, as by cutting; to provide.
- […] who could easily have carved themselves their own food.1692–1717, Robert South, Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London
- 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
- To lay out; to contrive; to design; to plan.
- 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]...
Noun
carve (plural carves)
- A 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 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
- The act of carving
- Give that turkey a careful carve.
carve meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
carve in Hindi
- to carve, to shave
- तराशना tarāśnā
carve in Tamil
- to cut meat
- வெட்டு veṭṭu
- to cut
- வெட்டு veṭṭu
- to shape to sculptural effect
- செதுக்கு cetukku
carve in Marathi
- to carve, engrave
- कोरणे korṇe
carve in Urdu
- کاٹنا, کندہ کرنا, تراشنا
More languagesFewer languages
- carve in Bengali
- খোদাই করা, কেটে তৈরি করা
- carve in Telugu
- చెక్కు cekku
- carve in Malayalam
- കൊത്തുക kottuka
- carve in Kannada
- ಕಡೆಗೆಯ್, ಕಡೆಯಿಸು, ಕೆತ್ತು, ಕೊರೆ
- carve in Punjabi
- ਖੋਤਣਾ khotṇā
- carve in Sanskrit
- ताष्टि tāṣṭi
- carve in Arabic
- نَحَتَ naḥata
- carve in Persian
- بریدن boridan, تراشیدن tarâšidan, کنده کاری kande-kâri
Examples of carve in a sentence
- I managed to carve out a niche for myself in the world of investigative journalism.
- I carved the piece of driftwood into a sculpture of a whale.
- This antique chair has been overpainted to the point that you can't discern the carved details.
Forms of carve
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | carves |
| present participle | carving |
| past | carved |
| past participle | carved |
| past participle (archaic) | carven |
| Noun | |
| plural | carves |
Origin of carve
From 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”).
Words formed from carve
Words that rhyme with carve
Questions about carve
- What does carve mean?
- Carve means to cut.
- What is carve in Hindi?
- Carve in Hindi is तराशना (tarāśnā). See Carve meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is carve?
- Carve can be a verb or a noun.
- How do you pronounce carve?
- Carve is pronounced /kɑɹv/ (US).
- What is the past tense of carve?
- The past tense of carve is carved.
Words near carve in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: carve (page history and authors); तराशना (Hindi) (page history and authors); कोरणे (Marathi) (page history and authors); carve (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); carve (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); കൊത്തുക (Malayalam) (page history and authors); carve (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ਖੋਤਣਾ (Punjabi) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-carve.ogg, En-uk-carve.ogg.
Cite this entry: “carve.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/carve. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.