Kerf

Pronunciation

• IPA: /kɜːf/

Origin

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

Full definition of kerf

Noun

1. The groove or slit created by cutting a workpiece; an incision.
• 1999, w, 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.
2. The width of the groove made while cutting.
• 1991, Popular Mechanics, January issue, page 63, "Thin-kerf blades", by Rosario CapotostroSawing with a thin-kerf blade produces a kerf that's 1/2 to 1/3 the size of a standard blade kerf.
3. Distance between diverging saw teeth

Related terms

• carve

Verb

1. To cut a piece of wood or other material with several kerfs to allow it to be bent.