carve

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   to cut to pieces

   Father carved the ham

2. 2
   verb

   to engrave or cut by chipping away at a surface

   carve one's name into the bark

3. 3
   verb

   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.

4. 4
   verb

   To cut meat in order to serve it.

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

5. 5
   verb

   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

6. 6
   verb

   To take or make, as by cutting; to provide.

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

7. 7
   verb

   To lay out; to contrive; to design; to plan.

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

8. 8
   noun

   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, ...

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *gerbʰ-der. Proto-Germanic *kerbaną Proto-West Germanic *kerban Old English ċeorfan Middle English kerven English 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”).