# 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: /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.
* 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.
* 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.
* 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)
* 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: /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)
* 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
* inflection of kerven:
** first-person singular present indicative
** (in case of inversion) second-person singular present indicative
** 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: /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.