carve
v.to cut into a hard material like wood or stone to make a shape or a pattern. You also use this word when you cut thin slices of cooked meat for a meal.
v.to cut into a solid material such as wood, stone, or ice to create a decorative object or inscription; also, to slice cooked meat into pieces for serving. Transitive or intransitive depending on whether the object of the cutting is specified.
“He likes to carve small animals out of wood.”
“The artist spent three months using a small chisel to carve the intricate statue from a single block of marble.”
“While the master chef began to carve the roast beef for the guests, the apprentice practiced how to carve delicate floral patterns into the rinds of watermelons for the centerpiece.”
The verb is transitive when followed by the material or the object created; it can be intransitive when describing the general activity.
“Mount recalls listening to these men “carve out” parts of Hollywood for themselves.”
“It was this massive cup with these beautiful ornate dogs carved on it.”
Common in culture and science writing
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”).
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.