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CARVING
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I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Creating figures or designs in three dimensions
Synonyms:
carving; sculpture
Classified under:
Nouns denoting acts or actions
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)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Removing parts from hard material to create a desired pattern or shape
Synonyms:
carving; cutting
Classified under:
Nouns denoting acts or actions
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:
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)
II. (verb)
Sense 1
-ing form of the verb carve
Context examples:
The furniture once appropriated to the lower apartments had from time to time been removed here, as fashions changed: and the imperfect light entering by their narrow casement showed bedsteads of a hundred years old; chests in oak or walnut, looking, with their strange carvings of palm branches and cherubs' heads, like types of the Hebrew ark; rows of venerable chairs, high-backed and narrow; stools still more antiquated, on whose cushioned tops were yet apparent traces of half-effaced embroideries, wrought by fingers that for two generations had been coffin-dust.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
None could seem more safe and secure and at her ease than this lady, yet here also was a symbol of human life, for in an instant, even as Alleyne reined aside to let the carriage pass, a wheel flew out from among its fellows, and over it all toppled—carving, tapestry and gilt—in one wild heap, with the horses plunging, the postilion shouting, and the lady screaming from within.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
I could not help wondering in my own mind, as I contemplated the boiled leg of mutton before me, previous to carving it, how it came to pass that our joints of meat were of such extraordinary shapes—and whether our butcher contracted for all the deformed sheep that came into the world; but I kept my reflections to myself.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
They returned to the hall, that the chief staircase might be ascended, and the beauty of its wood, and ornaments of rich carving might be pointed out: having gained the top, they turned in an opposite direction from the gallery in which her room lay, and shortly entered one on the same plan, but superior in length and breadth.
(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)
Tom Bertram had of late spent so little of his time at home that he could be only nominally missed; and Lady Bertram was soon astonished to find how very well they did even without his father, how well Edmund could supply his place in carving, talking to the steward, writing to the attorney, settling with the servants, and equally saving her from all possible fatigue or exertion in every particular but that of directing her letters.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
The Priory at Christchurch was a noble pile, but it was cold and bare, methinks, by one of these, with their frettings, and their carvings, and their traceries, as though some great ivy-plant of stone had curled and wantoned over the walls.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
The old-fashioned brass knocker on the low arched door, ornamented with carved garlands of fruit and flowers, twinkled like a star; the two stone steps descending to the door were as white as if they had been covered with fair linen; and all the angles and corners, and carvings and mouldings, and quaint little panes of glass, and quainter little windows, though as old as the hills, were as pure as any snow that ever fell upon the hills.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
