Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A groove or notch made by a cutting tool, such as a saw or an ax.
  • noun The width of a groove made by a cutting tool.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A Middle English preterit of carve.
  • To cut (a strip or bar of wood) with one or more kerfs for the purpose of bending it.
  • noun A cut; an incision; a stroke with a weapon.
  • noun A channel or cut made in wood by a saw or other cutting-instrument.
  • noun In a cloth-shearing machine, the wool taken off in one passage through the cutter.
  • noun A layer of hay or turf. [Prov. Eng.]—5. That which is cut; a Cutting.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A notch, channel, or slit made in any material by cutting or sawing.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The groove or slit created by cutting a workpiece; an incision.
  • noun The width of the groove made while cutting.
  • noun Distance between diverging saw teeth
  • verb To cut a piece of wood or other material with several kerfs to allow it to be bent.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old English cyrf, a cutting; see gerbh- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old English cyrf ("a cutting off, a cutting instrument").

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Examples

  • The new study found that the "kerf" - which is the amount of germanium wasted during the slicing process - was 22 percent less when a 75-micron diameter electrified wire was used to cut the wafers, compared with the conventional wire saw method.

    University of Utah - UNews RSS Feed 2008

  • The new study found that the "kerf" - which is the amount of germanium wasted during the slicing process - was 22 percent less when a 75-micron diameter electrified wire was used to cut the wafers, compared with the conventional wire saw method.

    innovations-report 2008

  • The new study found that the "kerf" - which is the amount of germanium wasted during the slicing process - was 22 percent less when a 75-micron diameter electrified wire was used to cut the wafers, compared with the conventional wire saw method.

    Reliable Plant Magazine 2008

  • The new study found that the "kerf" - which is the amount of germanium wasted during the slicing process - was 22 percent less when a 75-micron diameter electrified wire was used to cut the wafers, compared with the conventional wire saw method.

    innovations-report 2008

  • The new study found that the "kerf" - which is the amount of germanium wasted during the slicing process - was 22 percent less when a 75-micron diameter electrified wire was used to cut the wafers, compared with the conventional wire saw method.

    Kansas City infoZine Headlines 2008

  • Raymond used it, -- for he said that he had bent the teeth out so as to make the saw cut a good wide kerf, and so he might have supposed that the kerf was the cut in the wood which a saw makes in going in.

    Caleb in the Country Jacob Abbott 1841

  • Its efficiency depends upon (1) the narrowness of the saw cut or "kerf," and (2) upon the force required to drive it thru the material.

    Handwork in Wood William Noyes

  • Methodically they opened the "kerf," each face almost as smooth as though it had been sawn.

    The Rules of the Game Stewart Edward White 1909

  • Begin your Notch 1, or the "kerf," as it is called, by chopping two marks, the upper one, A, at a distance above the other, B, equal to half the thickness of the tree.

    Young Knights of the Empire : Their Code, and Further Scout Yarns Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell Baden-Powell of Gilwell 1899

  • You can then chop one side of the log half-way through and turn around and chop the other side until the second notch or "kerf" is cut through to the first one on the opposite side, and the two pieces fall apart.

    On the Trail An Outdoor Book for Girls Lina Beard 1888

Comments

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  • "Kerf, the sawn-away slit in any piece of timber."

    Falconer's New Universal Dictionary of the Marine (1816), 210

    October 14, 2008

  • This is a glorious word.

    October 14, 2008

  • I rather like it myself.

    October 14, 2008