Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a riotous time.

1936

M. Harrison All the Trees were Green 264: What a carve up; what a carve up [...] Oh, dear ... were we tight?

2. any situation in which one feels oneself unfairly deprived of a desired aim or object.

1935		M. Harrison Spring in Tartarus 27: The de Launes hadn’t a tosser between them. Oh my Lord, what a carve up!
1936		J. Curtis Gilt Kid 92: There would probably be a carve-up at the end when it came to sharing out the dough. Scaley was certainly the sort of man to stick to more than his fair share.
1959		W. Hall Long and the Short and the Tall Act I: You know what Blighty is these days, do you? It’s a carve up, son. A rotten carve up.
1962		[film title] What a Carve-Up!
1974		‘P.B. Yuill’ Hazell Plays Solomon (1976) 113: It had been a carve-up from the start. She wasn’t going to swop over the kids, she was going to [...] leave the Abreys to stew.

3. a knife or razor-slashing.

1936		J. Curtis Gilt Kid 200: A carve-up could be settled very easily. Nobody misses an old man when he’s on the ribs.
1959		F. Norman Fings II i: Knives an’ all / Some carve up! / Wot a ball – / This carve-up!
1962		R. Cook Crust on its Uppers 42: Proper carve-up and won’t be out of the hospital for weeks.

4. a war.

1943

M. Harrison Reported Safe Arrival 53: I been in the Boer War (lad’s service) and the lars’ carve-up.

5. (UK Und.) a share-out of loot, profits, etc.

1941		V. Davis Phenomena in Crime 105: A ponce’s quarrel over a carve-up.
1956		J. Curtis Look Long Upon a Monkey 50: What a stroke! There’s a carve-up, if you like! What chance the bleedun public stand?
1967		‘Whisper All Aussie Dict.’ in Kings Cross Whisper (Sydney) xxxiii 4/3: chop: Share of loot, see also corner. How many in the ‘chop-up’, also ‘carve up, whack up’.
1972		P. Fordham Inside the Und. 36: Too many for the carve-up anyway.
1983		R. Aven-Bray Ridgey-Didge Oz Jack Lang 7: Inflation, luv, the overheads are bloody enormous. Everyone wants to be in the carve up.
2000		J.J. Connolly Layer Cake 85: The government will be told the terms and conditions of the carve-up by their paymasters, the money men.
2007		N. ‘Razor’ Smith Raiders 310: After the carve-up he and Smasher should go their separate ways and lie low .
2011		J.J. Connolly Viva La Madness 13: The Caribbean [is] the most unequal carve-up in the history of the world.

6. an upset, a fuss.

1959

F. Durbridge A Time of Day (1989) 157: Got four of me own. Proper carve-up when they go to the dentist.

7. an error, mistake.

1969

A. Buckeridge Trust Jennings (1989) 46: You’ve made a right royal carve-up and no mistake.