different between carve vs kerf

English

Etymology

From Middle English kerven, from Old English ceorfan, from Proto-West Germanic *kerban, from Proto-Germanic *kerban?, from Proto-Indo-European *gerb?- (“to scratch”). Cognate with West Frisian kerve, Dutch kerven, Low German karven, German kerben (“to notch”); also Old Prussian g?rbin (“number”), Old Church Slavonic ?????? (žr?bii, “lot, tallymark”), Ancient Greek ??????? (gráphein, “to scratch, etch”).

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /k??v/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /k??v/
  • Homophone: calve (Received Pronunciation)
• Rhymes: -??(?)v

Verb

carve (third-person singular simple present carves, present participle carving, simple past carved or (obsolete) corve, past participle carved or (archaic) carven or (obsolete) corven)

1. (archaic) To cut.
   • ?, Alfred Tennyson, Sir Galahad

     My good blade carves the casques of men.

2. To cut meat in order to serve it.

3. To shape to sculptural effect; to produce (a work) by cutting, or to cut (a material) into a finished work.
4. (snowboarding) To perform a series of turns without pivoting, so that the tip and tail of the snowboard take the same path.
5. (figuratively) To take or make, as by cutting; to provide.

   • […] who could easily have carved themselves their own food.
6. To lay out; to contrive; to design; to plan.

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

carve (plural carves)

1. (obsolete) A carucate.
   • 1862, Calendar of the Patent and Close Rolls of Chancery in Ireland

     ... half a carve of arable land in Ballyncore, one carve of arable land in Pales, a quarter of arable land in Clonnemeagh, half a carve of arable land in Ballyfaden, half a carve of arable land in Ballymadran, ...

   • 1868, John Harland (editor), Wapentake of West Derby, in Remains, Historical and Literary, Connected with the Palatine Counties of Lancaster and Chester, (translating a Latin text c. 1320-46), page 31

     Whereof John de Ditton holds a moiety of the village for half a carve of land.

2. The act of carving

Anagrams

• Caver, caver, crave, varec

English

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 *gerb?- (“to scratch”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /k??f/
• Rhymes: -??(?)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.
3. 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.

4. The flattened, cut-off end of a branch or tree; a stump or sawn-off cross-section.
5. The portion or quantity (e.g. of hay, turf, wool, etc.) cut off in a given stroke.

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. (Supplement)

Anagrams

• f**ker, ferk

Dutch

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /k?rf/
• Hyphenation: kerf
• Rhymes: -?rf

Etymology 1

From Middle Dutch kerve. 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 main entry.

Verb

kerf

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