CARVING

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does carving mean? 

• CARVING (noun)
  The noun CARVING has 3 senses:

1. a sculpture created by removing material (as wood or ivory or stone) in order to create a desired shape

2. removing parts from hard material to create a desired pattern or shape

3. creating figures or designs in three dimensions

  Familiarity information: CARVING used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CARVING (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A sculpture created by removing material (as wood or ivory or stone) in order to create a desired shape

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("carving" is a kind of...):

sculpture (a three-dimensional work of plastic art)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "carving"):

cinquefoil (an ornamental carving consisting of five arcs arranged in a circle)

glyptic art; glyptography (carvings or engravings (especially on precious stones))

scrimshaw (a carving (or engraving) on whalebone, whale ivory, walrus tusk, etc., usually by American whalers)

vermiculation (a decoration consisting of wormlike carvings)

woodcarving (a carving created by carving wood)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Removing parts from hard material to create a desired pattern or shape

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

carving; cutting

Hypernyms ("carving" is a kind of...):

creating by removal (the act of creating by removing something)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "carving"):

petroglyph (a carving or line drawing on rock (especially one made by prehistoric people))

truncation (the replacement of an edge or solid angle (as in cutting a gemstone) by a plane (especially by a plane that is equally inclined to the adjacent faces))

Derivation:

carve (form by carving)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Creating figures or designs in three dimensions

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

carving; sculpture

Hypernyms ("carving" is a kind of...):

art; artistic creation; artistic production (the creation of beautiful or significant things)

beaux arts; fine arts (the study and creation of visual works of art)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "carving"):

modeling; modelling; molding; moulding (a preliminary sculpture in wax or clay from which a finished work can be copied)

Derivation:

carve (engrave or cut by chipping away at a surface)

 Context examples 

I have seen him smile in his quiet way because I had looked for the fourth time towards the carving squire.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

There was an old door in this playground, on which the boys had a custom of carving their names.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Not a speck escaped Aunt March's eye, and all the furniture had claw legs and much carving, which was never dusted to suit.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Most existing models that lay out the origin of Titan's lakes show liquid methane dissolving the moon's bedrock of ice and solid organic compounds, carving reservoirs that fill with the liquid.

(New Models Suggest Titan Lakes Are Explosion Craters, NASA)

But she was too busy in her mind, carving out a career for him that would at least be possible, to ask what the ultimate something was which he had hinted at.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

I could see even in the dim light that the stone was massively carved, but that the carving had been much worn by time and weather.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

The young planet is carving a path through the primordial disc of gas and dust around the very young star PDS 70.

(First Confirmed Image of Newborn Planet, ESO)

Inside was a large room in which fifty workers were carving or moulding.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The fireplace, where she had expected the ample width and ponderous carving of former times, was contracted to a Rumford, with slabs of plain though handsome marble, and ornaments over it of the prettiest English china.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

The whole party rose accordingly, and under Mrs. Rushworth's guidance were shewn through a number of rooms, all lofty, and many large, and amply furnished in the taste of fifty years back, with shining floors, solid mahogany, rich damask, marble, gilding, and carving, each handsome in its way.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)