Verb

(en verb)

To make a nick or notch in; to cut or scratch in a minor way.

I nicked myself while I was shaving.

# To make a cross cut or cuts on the underside of (the tail of a horse, in order to make the animal carry it higher).

# To mar; to deface; to make ragged, as by cutting nicks or notches in.

#* Prior

And thence proceed to nicking sashes.

#* Shakespeare

The itch of his affection should not then / Have nicked his captainship.

To suit or fit into, as by a correspondence of nicks; to tally with.

* Camden

Words nicking and resembling one another are applicable to different significations.

# To hit at, or in, the nick; to touch rightly; to strike at the precise point or time.

#* L'Estrange

The just season of doing things must be nicked , and all accidents improved.

# To throw or turn up (a number when playing dice); to hit upon.

#* {{quote-book, year=1773

, author=Oliver Goldsmith , title=She Stoops to Conquer , text=My old luck: I never nicked seven that I did not throw ames ace three times following.}}

# (cricket) to hit the ball with the edge of the bat and produce a fine deflection

(obsolete) To nickname; to style.

* Ford

For Warbeck, as you nick him, came to me.

(slang) To steal.

Someone's nicked my bike!

(transitive, British, slang) To arrest.

The police nicked him climbing over the fence of the house he'd broken into.

Verb

(archaic) To cut.

* Tennyson

My good blade carved the casques of men.

To cut meat in order to serve it.

You carve the roast and I'll serve the vegetables.

To shape to sculptural effect; to produce (a work) by cutting, or to cut (a material) into a finished work.

to carve a name into a tree

* {{quote-book, year=1920, year_published=2008 , edition=HTML, author=Edgar Rice Burroughs

, title=Thuvia, Maiden of Mars citation , publisher=The Gutenberg Project , passage=The facades of the buildings fronting upon the avenue within the wall were richly carven

* {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham)

, title=(The China Governess) , chapter=1 citation , passage=The half-dozen pieces […] were painted white and carved with festoons of flowers, birds and cupids. To display them the walls had been tinted a vivid blue which had now faded, but the carpet, which had evidently been stored and recently relaid, retained its original turquoise.}}

(snowboarding) To perform a series of turns without pivoting, so that the tip and tail of the snowboard take the same path.

(figuratively) To take or make, as by cutting; to provide.

* South

who could easily have carved themselves their own food.

* {{quote-news, year=2010

, date=December 29 , author=Sam Sheringham , title=Liverpool 0 - 1 Wolverhampton , work=BBC citation , page= , passage=The Reds carved the first opening of the second period as Glen Johnson's pull-back found David Ngog but the Frenchman hooked wide from six yards. }}

To lay out; to contrive; to design; to plan.

* Shakespeare

Lie ten nights awake carving the fashion of a new doublet.