Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Carve

Carve (karv) , transitive verb

[Anglo-Saxon ceorfan to cut, carve; akin to Dutch kerven, German kerben, Danish karve, Swedish karfva, and to Greek gra`fein to write, orig. to scratch, and English -graphy. Compare Graphic.]

1.
To cut. [Obsolete]
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. — Shakespeare
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. — Shakespeare
Fortunes were carved out of the property of the crown. — Macaulay
Collocations (1)
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. — Shakespeare

Carve , intransitive verb

1.
To exercise the trade of a sculptor or carver; to engrave or cut figures.
2.
To cut up meat; as, to carve for all the guests.

Carve , noun

A carucate. [Obsolete] — Burrill