chiseling

A set of iconoclastic monks whom the Christian world is pleased to designate as St. Patrick, and who probably early in the fifth century of our era amused themselves by chiseling from the Irish monuments many of the symbols of the female power, removed also the figures of serpents which had for ages appeared in connection with the emblems of woman, and by this act won the plaudits of an admiring Christian world; chiefly, however, for the skill manifested in "banishing snakes from Ireland."

The God-Idea of the Ancients 1897

Margaret Foley, who, amid the hum of the machinery of the Lowell cotton mills, first conceived the idea of chiseling her thought on the surface of a "smooth-lipped shell," was obliged to go to Rome in order to get the necessary instruction in cameo-cutting.

History of Woman Suffrage, Volume III (of III) Matilda Joslyn Gage 1862

It's going to be very hard for some bureaucrat to winnow out the honest borrowers from those who were kind of chiseling around the corners.

CNN Transcript Feb 18, 2009 2009

I sorry if it offends you that Jews have committed ethnic cleansing, or that they sometimes do unattractive things such as chiseling for an advantage.

The Volokh Conspiracy » Candidate Obama, President Obama: 2009

"The editing process is about chiseling away the excess," he says.

Make Organizing Your Photos a Snap Alina Dizik 2011

Amongst a life-size model of a woman dressed in a 'stars-and-stripes' burka, human hearts half buried in sand and children chiseling away at an edible depiction of the crucified Jesus, is the creator of all the aforementioned works: iconic artist and graffiti pioneer Nick Walker.

Constantin Bjerke: In Gods We Trust (Video) Constantin Bjerke 2010

Our Patch.com had the exclusive scoop on the chiseling chopper story.

Howard Fineman: Local News Is Everyone's (Good) Business Howard Fineman 2011

Here are the convicts plotting their plots, flooding their cells, doing their chin-ups, chiseling away at their shivs and shanks; here is the dead-eyed felon, and here the tittering psychopath.

Prison Porn 2010

Our Patch.com had the exclusive scoop on the chiseling chopper story.

Howard Fineman: Local News Is Everyone's (Good) Business Howard Fineman 2011

What I experienced was more akin to chiseling, as if all that had happened was stone, and I had only faith and a small bit of metal to find the shape, to tap out the places where meaning might lie.

Evoking My Days With JFK Jr. Christina Haag 2012