Phrasal verb
carve out
Definition
phrasal verb. to create a space, time, or career for yourself by working hard.
phrasal verb. 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.
Examples
“I need to carve out some time for exercise.”
“She managed to carve out a successful career in the competitive world of fashion design.”
“Despite the saturated market, the startup managed to carve out a significant niche by focusing on sustainable packaging solutions.”
Examples
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.”
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.
Phrasal verb
Particles
out
Separability
optional
Pattern
carve + (object) + out
Synonyms
Antonyms
Grammar
Scan code
englishreference.com/q/carve-out