kerf

English

Etymology

From Middle English kerf, kirf, kyrf, from Old English cyrf (“an act of cutting, a cutting off; a cutting instrument”), from Proto-West Germanic *kurbi, from Proto-Germanic *kurbiz (“a cut; notch; clipping”), from Proto-Indo-European *gerbʰ- (“to scratch”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Käärf, West Frisian kerf, Swedish korv. Related also to Dutch kerf, German Low German Karve, Karv, German Kerbe.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kɜː(ɹ)f/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)f

Noun

kerf (plural kerfs)

1. (now rare) The act of cutting or carving something; a stroke or slice.
2. 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.

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. 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.

Related terms

• carve
• swarf

Translations

Verb

kerf (third-person singular simple present kerfs, present participle kerfing, simple past and past participle kerfed)

1. 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, →OCLC. (Supplement)

Anagrams

• f**ker, ferk

Dutch

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kɛrf/

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: kerf
• Rhymes: -ɛrf

Etymology 1

From Middle Dutch kerve; see the verb kerven. The sense “insect” was borrowed from German Kerf.

Noun

kerf m (plural kerven, diminutive kerfje n)

1. a carve or groove
2. (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

1. inflection of kerven:
   1. first-person singular present indicative
   2. imperative

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)

1. The act of cutting or carving; a stroke or slice.
2. (rare) An incision; the result of cutting.
3. (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.