Forms: α. 1 cyrf, 4 kyrf, 5 kirf, 6 kyrfe. β. 4–7 kerfe, (4–5 -ff(e), 4– kerf, 9 dial. curf, kurf). γ. See CARF. [OE. cyrf, app.:—*kurƀi-, f. *kurƀ- (cf. ON. kurf-r chip, kyrfa to cut), ablaut-form of *kerƀ, stem of OE. ceorfan to CARVE. Hence ME. kirf, giving later kerf and karf; cf. kernel and carnel from ME. kirnel, OE. cyrnel. Cf. (with different stem vowel) Du. kerf, Ger. kerb, kerbe; also ON. kjarf, Icel. kerfi, bundle (of twigs, etc.), Sw. kärfve sheaf.]
1. The act of cutting or carving; a cut, stroke; † power of cutting. Now rare.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Hom., II. 406. ‘Ælc treow ðe ne wyrcð godne wæstm bið forcorfen….’ Be ðisum cyrfe spræc se Hælend on oðre stowe.
13[?]. Gaw. & Gr. Knt., 372. ‘Kepe þe cosyn,’ quoth þe kyng, ‘þat þou on kyrf sette.’
1390. Gower, Conf., II. 152. With sondri kerf and pourtreture Thei made of goddes the figure.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVII. clxxvii. (MS. Bodl.), lf. 234 b/1. Þe kuttinge [of vines] schal be aslonte … so þat in þe oþer side afore þe knotte þe kerfe schal passe.
1892. Vizetelly, trans. Zola’s Débâcle, 289. Then, with a single kerf of the saw, he lopped them off.
† b. Humorous term for a company of pantrymen. Obs.
1486. Bk. St. Albans, F vij. A Kerff of Panteris; a Credens of Seweris; an vnbrewyng of Kerueris.
[1678. Phillips (ed. 4), App., A Kerf of Panthers (among some Venatory writers), is taken for a company of Panthers.]
2. The result of cutting; the incision, notch, slit, etc., made by cutting, esp. by a saw.
1523. Fitzherb., Husb., § 136. Bycause it [a saw] is thyn, it wyll cut the narowe kyrfe.
1664. Evelyn, Sylva (1776), 132. Cut your kerfe near to the ground, but have a care the Tree suffer not in the fall.
1792. J. Belknap, Hist. New Hampsh., III. 156. The felling of such a tree must require much labour, since those of but one inch have eight or ten strokes, distinctly marked, and a very good kerf is allowed.
1812–6. J. Smith, Panorama Sci. & Art, I. 99. The saw, when cutting, takes away the wood at the two sides of the kerf.
1890. W. J. Gordon, Foundry, 121. A matter-of-fact place is a sawmill, perhaps the most unpoetical thing on earth…. Its great problem is how to minimize the ‘kerf,’ the kerf being the track of the saw.
† b. fig. The furrow made by a ship’s keel. rare.
c. 1422. Hoccleve, Learn to Die, 203. As a ship þat is sayllynge … Whos kerfe nat fownden is whan past is shee.
3. The place at which a tree or branch is or has been cut across; the cut end or surface either on a felled or pruned tree.
c. 1420. Pallad. on Husb., I. 190. Turne euery kirf aweyward from the grape: Lest droppyng do hit harm.
1664. Evelyn, Sylva, 85. A Tree … thirteen foot diameter at the Kerf, or cutting place neer the Root. Ibid., 92. One foot of Timber neer the Root (which is the proper kerfe, or cutting place) is worth three farther off.
1677. Plot, Oxfordsh., 161. The Oaks had none of them any roots, but plainly cut off at the kerf, as is used in felling Timber.
1868. Blackley, Word Gossip (1869), 161 (E. D. D.). A woodman will say that a felled tree ‘measures so and so, not counting the kurf.’
4. A piece or quantity cut off; a cutting (of anything).
1678. Phillips (ed. 4), App. s.v., Among Woodmen Kerf signifieth a parcel of Loppings of wood.
1730. in Swayne, Churchw. Acc. Sarum (1896), 352. Carrying away a Kerfe of half a foot of earth.
1890. Cent. Dict., Kerf, in a cloth-shearing machine, the wool taken off in one passage through the cutter.
5. Comb. as † kerf-shears.
1356. in Riley, Mem. London (1868), 283. [4 small] anfeldes [for goldsmiths, and 2] kerfsheres.
Hence Kerfed a., having kerfs or slits. Kerfing-machine, a machine for sawing kerfs in a board (Knight, Dict. Mech., 1875).
