# scarf
## English
### Pronunciation

* (UK) IPA: /skɑːf/
* (US) IPA: /skɑːɹf/
* Audio (General Australian):(file)
* Rhymes: -ɑː(ɹ)f

### Etymology 1

Probably from Old Northern French escarpe (compare Old French escharpe (“pilgrim's purse suspended from the neck”), which see). The verb is derived from the noun. Doublet of scrip.

#### Noun

scarf (plural scarves or scarfs)
* A long, often knitted, garment worn around the neck.
** 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 2, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:Now that she had rested and had fed from the luncheon tray Mrs. Broome had just removed, she had reverted to her normal gaiety. She looked cool in a grey tailored cotton dress with a terracotta scarf and shoes and her hair a black silk helmet.
* A headscarf.
* (dated) A neckcloth or cravat.

##### Derived terms

* Ascot scarf
* head scarf
* head-scarf
* infinity scarf
* Möbius scarf
* Palestinian scarf
* pioneer scarf
* red scarf
* scarf-skin

##### Descendants

* → Irish: scairf, scaif
* → Welsh: sgarff

##### Translations
#### Verb

scarf (third-person singular simple present scarfs, present participle scarfing, simple past and past participle scarfed)
* To throw on loosely; to put on like a scarf.
** c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene ii]:My sea-gown scarfed about me.
* To dress with a scarf, or as with a scarf; to cover with a loose wrapping.

##### Alternative forms

* scarve

### Etymology 2

Of uncertain origin. Possibly from Old Norse skarfr, derivative of skera (“to cut”).

#### Noun

scarf (plural scarfs)
* A type of joint in woodworking, formed by two shaped ends that fit into or onto each other.
* A groove on one side of a sewing machine needle.
* A dip or notch or cut made in the trunk of a tree to direct its fall when felling.

##### Translations
#### Verb

scarf (third-person singular simple present scarfs, present participle scarfing, simple past and past participle scarfed)
* To shape by grinding or oxyfuel torch cutting.
* To form a scarf on the end or edge of, as for a joint in timber, forming a "V" groove for welding adjacent metal plates, metal rods, etc.
* To unite, as two pieces of timber or metal, by a scarf joint.

##### Derived terms

* scarfer

### Etymology 3

Generally thought to be a variant, attested since the 1950s, of scoff (“eat (quickly)”) (of which scorf is another attested variant), itself a variant of scaff. Sometimes alternatively suggested to be a dialectal survival of Old English scearfian, sceorfan (“gnaw, bite”) (compare scurf).

#### Verb

scarf (third-person singular simple present scarfs, present participle scarfing, simple past and past participle scarfed)
* (transitive, US, slang) To eat very quickly.
    Synonyms: (UK) scoff, guzzle
    You sure scarfed that pizza.
** 1983, Raymond Carver, Cathedral:We dug in. We ate everything there was to eat on the table. We ate like there was no tomorrow. We didn't talk. We ate. We scarfed. We grazed that table. We were into serious eating. We finished everything, including half a strawberry pie.

##### Derived terms

* scarf and barf
* scarf down

##### Translations
### Etymology 4

From Old Norse skarfr.

#### Noun

scarf (plural scarfs)
* (Scotland) A cormorant.

##### Alternative forms

* scart, skart

### Etymology 5
#### Noun

scarf (countable and uncountable, plural scarfs)
* Archaic form of scurf (“skin disease; skin flakes”).

### References

* ↑ “scarf”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
* ↑ “scarf”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
* ↑ Douglas Harper (2001–2025) “scarf”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
* “scarf”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

### Anagrams

* carfs, fracs

## Old High German
### Alternative forms

* scarph

### Etymology

From Proto-West Germanic *skarp, see also Old Saxon skarp, Old English scearp, Old Norse skarpr.

### Adjective

scarf
* sharp

#### Descendants

* Middle High German: scharpf
** Alemannic German: scharpf
** Bavarian: scharf
** Central Franconian: schärp, scharp (eastern Ripuarian), scharf (Moselle Franconian; now alternatively in Ripuarian via German)
** German: scharf
** Hunsrik: schaaref
** Luxembourgish: schaarf
** Yiddish: שאַרף (sharf)