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carven. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
carven, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
carven in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
carven you have here. The definition of the word
carven will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition of
carven, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
English
Etymology
From Middle English carven, a variant (with the vowel modified to match the present stem) of Middle English corven, y-corven (“carved”), from Old English corfen, ġecorfen (“cut, carved”), from Proto-West Germanic *korban, from Proto-Germanic *kurbanaz (“cut, carved”), past participle of *kerbaną (“to carve”). Equivalent to carve + -en (past participle ending).
Adjective
carven (not comparable)
- Made by carving, especially when intricately or artistically done.
1903 April 11, F A Steel, “The Beasts That Perish”, in The Saturday Review of Politics, Literature, Science, and Art, volume 95, number 2,476, London, page 449, column 1:I can fancy myself there now, the sun and the sweetness of the orange blossom bewildering in their purity, the green parrotlings in a nest behind a carven god simmering away contentedly like half a dozen kettles until with an express train shriek a red and green parent whizzed past me bearing a dinner for one, […]
1920, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Thuvia, Maiden of Mars, HTML edition, The Gutenberg Project, published 2008:The facades of the buildings fronting upon the avenue within the wall were richly carven […]
1999, Lin Carter, The Quest of Kadji, page 118:The architecture was bewildering in its multiform complexity: great, sleepy-lidded faces of stone gazed down from the eight-sided towers; fantastic dragon-hybrids writhed entangled coils above portal and arch; many-armed and beast-headed gods thronged the paven ways, lining entire avenues in rank on rank of carven stone idols so innumerable as to suggest pantheons as populous as dynasties.
Verb
carven
- (archaic) past participle of carve.
Anagrams
Middle English
Verb
carven
- Alternative form of kerven