Meaning & use
carve-out
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Meanings
nouncountablelegal
A clause or provision that deliberately removes certain people, cases or items from the reach of a broader rule or agreement.
Grammar: Often followed by for: a carve-out for small firms.
Patterns
- a carve-out for someone
- a carve-out from something
The new law has a carve-out for family-owned farms.
Lawyers negotiated a carve-out so the older contracts would stay valid.
Critics said the carve-out made the whole rule pointless.
nouncountablefinance
A business unit that a company separates from itself and sells part of to outside investors, often through a share offering.
Grammar: Usually describes a corporate restructuring: the carve-out of a subsidiary.
Patterns
- the carve-out of something
The carve-out of the software division raised several hundred million dollars.
Analysts expect a carve-out of the pharmacy business next year.
The parent company kept a majority stake after the carve-out.
Word forms
| plural | carve-outs |
|---|
Common combinations
- tax carve-out
- The bill includes a tax carve-out for charities.
- negotiate a carve-out
- Unions negotiated a carve-out for night workers.
- a narrow carve-out
- The court allowed only a narrow carve-out from the ban.
- a carve-out for
- There is a carve-out for emergency repairs.
- announce a carve-out
- The firm will announce a carve-out of its logistics arm.
Synonyms and how they differ
- exemption
- Exemption is the plain, general word for freedom from a rule, while carve-out suggests a piece was deliberately cut away during drafting.
- exception
- Exception can be any case that does not follow a rule, whereas a carve-out is a written, intentional provision.
- loophole
- A loophole is an unintended gap people exploit, but a carve-out is placed there on purpose.
- spin-off
- Spin-off describes a separated company shares of which go to existing owners, unlike a carve-out where outside investors buy in.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: carve-out or spin-off?
carve-out vs spin-off
A spin-off gives shares to current shareholders; a carve-out sells part of the unit to new investors.
Practice
The treaty bans all fishing in the area, but a ____ allows local villagers to catch fish for their own meals.
Choose one answer.
A carve-out is a deliberate exception within a broader rule. A sell-off is a sale of assets, a cut-off is a limit or deadline, and take-out refers to food.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “carve-out”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.