kerf
English
![](Images/wiktionary/Pot_made_of_clay_pitched_between_a_nail_and_a_kerf_in_a_tree_bark.jpg.webp)
![](Images/wiktionary/Saw_blade.svg.png.webp)
Etymology
From Middle English kerf, kirf, kyrf, from Old English cyrf (“an act of cutting, a cutting off; a cutting instrument”), from Proto-Germanic *kurbiz (“a cut; notch”), from Proto-Indo-European *gerbʰ- (“to scratch”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Käärf, German Kerbe.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /kɜː(ɹ)f/
Audio (US) (file) - Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)f
Noun
kerf (plural kerfs)
- (now rare) The act of cutting or carving something; a stroke or slice.
- The groove or slit created by cutting or sawing something; an incision.
- 1999, Neal Stephenson, Cryptonomicon:
- They pass through a cleft that has been made across a low range of hills, like a kerf in the top of a log, and enter into a lovely territory of subtly swelling emerald green fields strewn randomly with small white capsules that he takes to be sheep.
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- The portion or quantity (e.g. of wood, hay, turf, wool, etc.) removed or cut off in a given stroke.
- 1991, Popular Mechanics, January issue, page 63, "Thin-kerf blades", by Rosario Capotostro
- Sawing with a thin-kerf blade produces a kerf that's 1/2 to 1/3 the size of a standard blade kerf.
- 1991, Popular Mechanics, January issue, page 63, "Thin-kerf blades", by Rosario Capotostro
- The distance between diverging saw teeth.
- 1991, Popular Mechanics, January issue, page 63, "Thin-kerf blades", by Rosario Capotostro
- Sawing with a thin-kerf blade produces a kerf that's 1/2 to 1/3 the size of a standard blade kerf.
- 1991, Popular Mechanics, January issue, page 63, "Thin-kerf blades", by Rosario Capotostro
- The flattened, cut-off end of a branch or tree; a stump or sawn-off cross-section.
- 1941, Vladimir Nabokov, The Real Life of Sebastian Knight, Penguin 1971 edition, page 115:
- Sebastian, still not alone, is seated on the white-and-cinder-grey trunk of a felled tree. […] A Camberwell Beauty skims past and settles on the kerf, fanning its velvety wings.
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Related terms
- carve
- swarf
Translations
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Verb
kerf (third-person singular simple present kerfs, present participle kerfing, simple past and past participle kerfed)
- To cut a piece of wood or other material with several kerfs to allow it to be bent.
References
- kerf in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911 (Supplement)
Anagrams
- f**ker, ferk
Dutch
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /kɛrf/
Audio (file) - Hyphenation: kerf
- Rhymes: -ɛrf
Etymology 1
From Middle Dutch kerve. The sense “insect” was borrowed from German Kerf.
Noun
kerf m (plural kerven, diminutive kerfje n)
- a carve or groove
- (rare, obsolete) insect
- Synonyms: insect, kerfdier, gekorven dier
Derived terms
- kerfbank
- kerfdier
- kerfstok
Etymology 2
See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.
Verb
kerf
- first-person singular present indicative of kerven
- imperative of kerven
Middle English
Alternative forms
- carffe, kerfe, kirf, kyrf
Etymology
From Old English cyrf, from Proto-West Germanic *kurbi, from Proto-Germanic *kurbiz.
The predominance of forms in -e- is probably due to the influence of kerven.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /kɛrf/, /kirf/
Noun
kerf (plural kerves)
- The act of cutting or carving; a stroke or slice.
- (rare) An incision; the result of cutting.
- (rare) The edge of a blade.
Descendants
- English: kerf, carf
- Scots: kerf, carf
References
- “kirf, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.