kerf

Etymology

From Middle English kerf, kirf, kyrf, from Old English cyrf (“an act of cutting, a cutting off; a cutting instrument”), from Proto-West Germanic *kurbi, from Proto-Germanic *kurbiz (“a cut; notch; clipping”), from Proto-Indo-European *gerbʰ- (“to scratch”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Käärf, West Frisian kerf, Swedish korv. Related also to Dutch kerf, German Low German Karve, Karv, German Kerbe.

noun

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.
   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. 1999, Neal Stephenson, Cryptonomicon
3. The portion or quantity (e.g. of wood, hay, turf, wool, etc.) removed or cut off in a given stroke.
   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 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.
5. The flattened, cut-off end of a branch or tree; a stump or sawn-off cross-section.
   Sebastian, still not alone, is seated on the white-and-cinder-grey trunk of a felled tree. […] A Camberwell Beauty skims past and settles on the kerf, fanning its velvety wings. 1941, Vladimir Nabokov, The Real Life of Sebastian Knight, Penguin 1971 edition, page 115

verb

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