ENGLISH
REFERENCE

carve out

phr. v..
B2 Upper Intermediate Oxford

phr. v.. to create a space, time, or career for yourself by working hard.

phr. v.. to establish a specific role, niche, or opportunity through diligent effort; often used in professional or temporal contexts to describe the extraction of a smaller part from a larger whole.


SIMPLE

I need to carve out some time for exercise.

CONTEXTUAL

She managed to carve out a successful career in the competitive world of fashion design.

COMPLEX

Despite the saturated market, the startup managed to carve out a significant niche by focusing on sustainable packaging solutions.

Particles
out
Separability
optional
Pattern
carve + (object) + out
Usage

commonly used with objects like 'time', 'niche', 'career', or 'reputation'.

Teaching tip

the metaphor comes from woodworking or stone carving, implying that the result is achieved through deliberate and sometimes difficult effort.

Pitfall

He carved out it for himself.He carved it out for himself.when using a pronoun like 'it', the phrasal verb is separable and the pronoun must go between the verb and the particle.

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