Etymology From earlier ingrave, equivalent to en- + grave (“to carve, engrave”). More at grave.
1
To carve text or symbols into (something), usually for the purposes of identification or art.
He engraved the plaque with his name.
Elbows almost touching they leaned at ease, idly reading the almost obliterated lines engraved there. ¶ "I never understood it," she observed, lightly scornful. "What occult meaning has a sun-dial for the spooney? I'm sure I don't want to read riddles in a strange gentleman's optics."1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter VIII, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:
So both agree their bodies to engraue; / The great earthes wombe they open to the sky [...].1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC: