to carve a totem

1 8.4

Make a wooden statue that shows cultural or spiritual beliefs to honor tradition

phrasal verb

: tallar un tótem

The artist spent weeks learning to carve a totem that reflected the community's values.

Examples

Many indigenous cultures still carve a totem to honor spiritual traditions and ancestral heritage.
As part of the ceremony, he helped his father carve a totem in the village square.
He decided to carve a totem for his village.
The artist carves a totem every summer.
The artist will carve a totem from a single piece of cedar to honor his ancestors.
During the festival, the community gathered to carve a totem that represented their traditions.
To celebrate their cultural heritage, they decided to carve a totem depicting local wildlife.

Synonyms

to carve

vsto carve a totem

272 2.1

Cut shapes and patterns into wood, stone and other hard materials

is for creating culturally important wooden figures rather than general cutting actions

to sculpt

vsto carve a totem

57 4.3

To make a statue from stone, wood, or clay by cutting and shaping it

focuses on making symbolic wooden art for cultural or spiritual honoring

Antonyms

to destroy

∞ 1.0

Damage something so badly that it cannot be used or fixed

How Elaborate

to carve a totem

1 8.4

to whittle

13 6.2

Surface Forms

carve a totem infinitive

carved a totem past

carved a totem past participle

carving a totem present participle

carves a totem third person singular

Morphology

carve + a + totem

The meaning 'to create a sculpture representing cultural or spiritual beliefs' is directly and compositionally derived from 'carve' (to cut/shape) + 'totem' (a group emblem); the indefinite article 'a' is semantically neutral. This is a straightforward verb + object construction found across languages, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents would readily infer the MWE meaning.

Etymology

Carve a totem comes from the old practice of using tools to carve faces and animals into a tall wooden totem pole that stood in a village. Those carved poles showed family and spirit stories, so to carve a totem means to make a special sculpture to 'honor' traditions or ancestors.