Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use calve in a sentence

12 example sentences · verb

Calve means to give birth to a calf. Example: “The farmer could tell Bessie was about to calve.”

Examples of calve by meaning

verbTo give birth to a calf.

  • The farmer could tell Bessie was about to calve.

verbTo assist in a cow’s giving birth to a calf.

  • The farmer calved Bessie for almost two hours.

verbTo shed a large piece.

  • The glacier was starting to calve even as we watched.

verbTo break off.

  • The sea was dangerous because of icebergs calving off the nearby glacier.

verbTo shed (a large piece); to set loose (a mass of ice).

  • The glacier was starting to calve an iceberg even as we watched.

More sentences with calve

  • The baccy crop's looking good, ja, and one of the mombies calved this morning.2014, Katherine Rundell, Cartwheeling in Thunderstorms, →ISBN. From the entry mombie
  • At the start of calving season, there was another bum calf, Ferdinand, whose mother had abandoned him.2005, Lynn Parr, Cowgirl: A Home on the Wyoming Range, page 149. From the entry bum calf
  • There were six young heifers that had just calved.1933, Frank Clune, Try Anything Once, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 25. From the entry bail up
  • It had the twin objectives of encouraging dairy smallholders commonly known as cowkeepers to decrease calving interval and increase milk production on their farm.2003, Geerjanand Saraye, Rafik Fakim, “Impact of the Milk Productivity Bonus Scheme (1993-1998) on Calving Interval”, in Agricultural…. From the entry cowkeeper
  • Be at her note, be near note, come forward to her note, of a cow or sow, be near the time for calving or farrowing.1996, C. I. Macafee Conc., Ulster Dict. at Note. From the entry note
  • Sometimes it is called the desert whale because its winter mating and calving grounds lie along a desolate stretch of Mexico's Pacific shore.1971 Mar, National Geographic, page 396. From the entry desert whale
  • He took a jug of ‘beestings’ milk from the press, the milk of a cow that has recently calved, and drank it down in six big gulps.2002, Joseph O'Connor, Star of the Sea, Vintage, published 2003, page 54. From the entry beestings

Meaning of calve

  1. verb To give birth to a calf.
  2. verb To assist in a cow’s giving birth to a calf.
  3. verb To give birth to (a calf).

Full definition of calve

Questions about calve in a sentence

How do you use calve in a sentence?
Calve is used as a verb. For example: “The farmer could tell Bessie was about to calve.”
What is a short sentence with calve?
“The farmer calved Bessie for almost two hours.”
What does calve mean?
Calve means to give birth to a calf.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: calve (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use calve in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/calve. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.