From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishcarve somebody/something ↔ up phrasal verb1 to divide land, a company etc into smaller parts and share it between people – used especially to show disapproval The Ottoman Empire was carved up by Britain and France after World War I. The two companies are attempting to carve up a large slice of America’s publishing industry between them.2 British English informal to drive past a car and then suddenly move in front of it so that you are too close → carve→ See Verb table
Examples from the Corpus
carve up• They would carve the world up into principalities and then there would be war again.carve-upˈcarve-up noun [singular] informal SHAREan arrangement between two or more people, governments etc by which they divide something among themselves even though this is wrongExamples from the Corpus
carve-up• None of the recent legislation and carve-up of countryside bodies by the present regime holds anything of good for the public. 