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. (literally, transitive) To hollow by carving.
2. (figuratively, transitive) 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 XXIII, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC:

     Fortunes were carved out of the property of the crown.

   • 1985 February 9, “Black History Month”, in Gay Community News, volume 12, number 29, page 4:

     Our movement's roots are intertwined with the movements for Black civil rights and Black power, movements which carved out the contexts, the language, the emotional, legal and strategic footprints for lesbians and gay men to follow in.

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

     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.