carve

Etymology

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”).

verb

1. (archaic) To cut.
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
   The facades of the buildings fronting upon the avenue within the wall were richly carven[…]. 1920, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Thuvia, Maiden of Mars, The Gutenberg Project, published 2008
4. (snowboarding) To perform a series of turns without pivoting, so that the tip and tail of the snowboard take the same path.
5. (figurative) To take or make, as by cutting; to provide.
   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. December 29, 2010, Sam Sheringham, “Liverpool 0 - 1 Wolverhampton”, in BBC
6. To lay out; to contrive; to design; to plan.

noun

1. (obsolete) 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, ... 1862, Calendar of the Patent and Close Rolls of Chancery in Ireland
   Whereof John de Ditton holds a moiety of the village for half a carve of land. 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
2. The act of carving
   give that turkey a careful carve