as in chip
a V-shaped cut usually on an edge or a surface with a handsaw I made a kerf in the board to mark where I needed to cut

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of kerf Mark the kerf on the end grain of a post. Paul Steiner, Popular Mechanics, 24 Mar. 2023 This reduces bowing and creates a thinner kerf, making pull saws ideal for joints and other fine woodwork. Pierre Tardif, WSJ, 3 June 2021
Recent Examples of Synonyms for kerf
Noun
  • In terms of competition, though, Huawei is the alpha dog in Chinese AI chips, shipping between 300,000 and 400,000 of its Ascend AI chips last year, compared to just north of 10,000 units from Cambricon.
    Preston Fore, Fortune, 24 Oct. 2025
  • The quarterback might touch the $1,000 poker chip or tap his chin or touch his black chips to indicate who at the table had the best hand.
    Rob Wile, NBC news, 24 Oct. 2025
Noun
  • The one-shoulder number was form-fitting with a knee-high slit up the left side.
    Skyler Caruso, PEOPLE, 21 Oct. 2025
  • The dress that put him on the fashion map was the white silk evening gown with a diagonal cutaway across the torso and a slit up to the hip bone, from Vaccarello’s eponymous label, that his dear friend the model Anja Rubik wore to the Met Gala in 2012.
    Rob Haskell, Vogue, 20 Oct. 2025
Noun
  • There is little doubt the 49ers, who balanced their run game with more gap scheme style runs as opposed to their heavy reliance on outside zone, got in their best groove of the season.
    Jerry McDonald, Mercury News, 23 Oct. 2025
  • The beauty of rock ‘n’ roll is repetition, the beauty of repetition and the groan and the groove and the communication of the words.
    Gary Graff, Billboard, 23 Oct. 2025
Noun
  • Developer Patrick Madden indents to bring a Wawa convenience store to the site as well as 240 apartments spread across multiple three-story buildings.
    Matthew Glowicki, The Courier-Journal, 13 July 2025
  • Unlike the grooves of a normal road wheel, its surface is almost completely smooth except for small indents, patterned differently between front and back wheel, which are designed to just slightly roughen the air, encouraging the right level of turbulent flow.
    Jacob Whitehead, New York Times, 11 July 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Kerf.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/kerf. Accessed 29 Oct. 2025.

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