kerf

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”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kɜːf/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)f

Noun

kerf (plural kerfs)

1. The groove or slit created by cutting a workpiece; 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.

2. The width of the groove made while cutting with a saw or laser.
   • 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.

3. The distance between diverging saw teeth.
4. The portion of hay, turf, wool, etc. yielded by a single cut or shearing stroke.

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, The Century Co., New York, 1911 (Supplement)

Anagrams

• ferk

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

Verb

kerf

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