carve.
To cut.
Meaning & usage
To cut.
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
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.
To lay out; to contrive; to design; to plan.
Where this word comes from
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”).
A carucate.
The act of carving
Give that turkey a careful carve.
Where this word comes from
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”).
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.