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”).

• (General American) IPA^(key): /kɑɹv/

  • Audio (US)

    (file)

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /kɑːv/

  • Audio (UK)

    (file)

  • Homophone: calve (Received Pronunciation)
• Rhymes: -ɑː(ɹ)v

carve (third-person singular simple present carves, present participle carving, simple past carved, past participle carved or (archaic) carven)

1. (archaic) To cut.
   • 1834 September (date written), Alfred Tennyson, “Sir Galahad”, in Poems. […], volume II, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, stanza I, page 174:

     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.

2. To cut meat in order to serve it.

   You carve the roast and I’ll serve the vegetables.

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.

   to carve a name into a tree

   • 1920, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Thuvia, Maiden of Mars‎, The Gutenberg Project, published 2008:

     The facades of the buildings fronting upon the avenue within the wall were richly carven […] .

   • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter I, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:

     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.

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.
   • 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, →OCLC:

     […] who could easily have carved themselves their own food.

   • 2010 December 29, Sam Sheringham, “Liverpool 0 - 1 Wolverhampton”, in BBC‎:

     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.

6. To lay out; to contrive; to design; to plan.
   • 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, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iii]:

     Lie ten nights awake carving the fashion of a new doublet.

• kerf

carve (plural carves)

1. (obsolete) A carucate.
   • 1862, Calendar of the Patent and Close Rolls of Chancery in Ireland:

     ... 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, ...

   • 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

     Whereof John de Ditton holds a moiety of the village for half a carve of land.

2. The act of carving

   give that turkey a careful carve

• Caver, caver, crave, varec

carve

1. Alternative form of kerven