CARVE
What does "CARVE" mean?
To cut a hard material into a shape, or to slice cooked meat.
Meanings
- To shape something, especially wood or stone, by cutting away material. He carved a small bird out of a block of pine.
- To cut cooked meat into slices for serving. Her grandfather always carved the turkey at the head of the table.
- To create or establish something through effort, often with 'out'. She carved out a niche in a crowded market. figurative
Word origin
From Old English 'ceorfan' ('to cut, cut down'), from a Proto-Germanic root; originally meaning simply 'to cut', it narrowed to the shaping and slicing senses while related words like 'graphic' share a deeper Indo-European 'to scratch' root.
Remember it
CARVE = 'C-ARV-E': you cut a CURVE into the wood; the V in the middle is the notch your knife makes.
A little poem
The block holds a shape.
The knife only takes away
what was never it.
haiku
Wordplay
- The sculptor and the host at Thanksgiving agreed: the secret is knowing exactly what to cut away.
What it teaches
You don't add to find the shape - you remove everything that was hiding it.
Quick facts
What does CARVE mean?
To cut a hard material into a shape, or to slice cooked meat.
Is CARVE a valid word?
Yes — CARVE is one of the answer words in Wordul, the daily word game.
How many letters is CARVE?
CARVE has 5 letters and 1 syllable.
Where does CARVE come from?
From Old English 'ceorfan' ('to cut, cut down'), from a Proto-Germanic root; originally meaning simply 'to cut', it narrowed to the shaping and slicing senses while related words like 'graphic' share a deeper Indo-European 'to scratch' root.
What can CARVE teach us?
You don't add to find the shape - you remove everything that was hiding it.
How players do
Be the first to solve it.