Carve v. t. [imp. & p. p. Carved p. pr. & vb. n. Carving.]
1. To cut. [Obs.]
Or they will carven the shepherd's throat. --Spenser.
2. To cut, as wood, stone, or other material, in an artistic or decorative manner; to sculpture; to engrave.
Carved with figures strange and sweet. --Coleridge.
3. To make or shape by cutting, sculpturing, or engraving; to form; as, to carve a name on a tree.
An angel carved in stone. --Tennyson.
We carved not a line, and we raised not a stone. --C. Wolfe.
4. To cut into small pieces or slices, as meat at table; to divide for distribution or apportionment; to apportion. “To carve a capon.”
5. To cut: to hew; to mark as if by cutting.
My good blade carved the casques of men. --Tennyson.
A million wrinkles carved his skin. --Tennyson.
6. To take or make, as by cutting; to provide.
Who could easily have carved themselves their own food. --South.
7. To lay out; to contrive; to design; to plan.
Lie ten nights awake carving the fashion of a new doublet. --Shak.
To carve out, to make or get by cutting, or as if by cutting; to cut out. “[Macbeth] with his brandished steel . . . carved out his passage.”
Fortunes were carved out of the property of the crown. --Macaulay.
carved
adj : made for or formed by carving (`carven' is archaic or
literary); "the carved fretwork"; "an intricately
carved door"; "stood as if carven from stone" [syn: carven]
[ant: uncarved]