Carven
adj, verb ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 past participle of carve. archaic, form-of, participle, past
"We both loved her now and for all time, she was stamped and carven on our hearts, and no other woman or interest could ever raze that splendid die."
- 1 Made by carving, especially when intricately or artistically done. not-comparable
"The beams that thro' the Oriel shine / Make prisms in every carven glass, / And beaker brimm'd with noble wine."
- 1 made for or formed by carving (‘carven’ is archaic or literary) wordnet
Synonyms
All synonymsExample
More examples"The walls, pillars and ceiling are of cedar richly carven with images of serpents, pomegranates and cherubim in gold."
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).
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.