carve

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• intransitive verb To divide into pieces by cutting; slice.
• intransitive verb To divide by parceling out.
• intransitive verb To cut into a desired shape; fashion by cutting.
• intransitive verb To make or form by or as if by cutting.
• intransitive verb To decorate by cutting and shaping carefully.
• intransitive verb To make (a turn or turns) smoothly and without skidding, as when skiing or riding a snowboard, by leaning sharply into the direction of the turn.
• intransitive verb To engrave or cut figures as an art, hobby, or trade.
• intransitive verb To disjoint, slice, and serve meat or poultry.
• intransitive verb To carve turns, as when skiing.

from The Century Dictionary.

• To cut with an edged tool or sharp instrument.
• Specifically — To cut into pieces or slices, as meat at table; divide by cutting, or, figuratively, by parceling out: as, to carve a fowl; to carve up an estate.
• To cut (some solid material) in order to produce the representation of an object or a design; fashion by cutting: as, to carve a block of marble into a statue.
• To produce by cutting; form by cutting or hewing; grave or engrave; sculpture: as, to carve an image; to carve a design in boxwood.
• To decorate by carving; produce cut or sculptured designs upon: as, to carve, a capital; to carve a cherry-stone.
• To mark as with carving.
• To carve out. To make or form by carving or parceling; cut out: as, to carve out a smaller estate from a larger one.
• Figuratively, to achieve by exertion or skill: as, to carve out a career for one's self.
• To exercise the trade of a carver; engrave or cut figures.
• To cut up meat: as, to carve for all the guests.
• To carve for one's self, to do as one pleases; act independently.
• To make a private sign to, at table. See II., 3.
• To make a private sign with the little finger at table, as when one carves (def. II., 2) or pretends to carve, or raises a glass to one's lips.
• noun See carue.
• To grow sour; curdle: said of cream.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• intransitive verb To exercise the trade of a sculptor or carver; to engrave or cut figures.
• intransitive verb To cut up meat.
• noun obsolete A carucate.
• transitive verb obsolete To cut.
• transitive verb To cut, as wood, stone, or other material, in an artistic or decorative manner; to sculpture; to engrave.
• transitive verb To make or shape by cutting, sculpturing, or engraving; to form.
• transitive verb To cut into small pieces or slices, as meat at table; to divide for distribution or apportionment; to apportion.
• transitive verb To cut: to hew; to mark as if by cutting.
• transitive verb To take or make, as by cutting; to provide.
• transitive verb To lay out; to contrive; to design; to plan.
• transitive verb to make or get by cutting, or as if by cutting; to cut out.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• verb archaic To cut.
• verb To cut meat in order to serve it.
• verb To shape to sculptural effect.
• verb snowboarding To perform a series of turns without pivoting, so that the tip and tail of the snowboard take the same path.
• verb figuratively To produce something using skill.
• noun obsolete A carucate.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• verb cut to pieces
• verb engrave or cut by chipping away at a surface
• verb form by carving