carve up

1. 1.

   separate into parts or portions

   “divide the cake into three equal parts”

   “The British carved up the Ottoman Empire after World War I”

   Synonymsdividesplitsplit upseparatedissever

   Broaderchange integrity

   Narrowersubdivideformatsectionalizetriangulateunitizelotparcelsliverparagraphcanton

Questions about carve up

What does carve up mean?

carve up means "separate into parts or portions".

What is another word for carve up?

Close synonyms include divide, split, split up, separate, dissever. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is carve up a common word?

carve up is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.