carve out

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carve out (third-person singular simple present carves out, present participle carving out, simple past and past participle carved out)

1. To hollow by carving.
2. (idiomatic) To create (a reputation, chance, role, rank, career, victory) by hard work, or as if by cutting.
   • c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]:

     [Macbeth] […] with his brandished steel […] carved out his passage.

   • 1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter 23, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volumes (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC:

     Fortunes were carved out of the property of the crown.

   • 2011 February 6, Alistair Magowan, “West Ham 0 - 1 Birmingham”, in BBC‎:

     The hosts went close on several occasions with Victor Obinna and Robbie Keane impressive in the first half, yet they had trouble carving out many clear openings and the defeat leaves them at the bottom of the Premier League on goal difference, two points from safety.