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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

scarf.

A long, often knitted, garment worn around the neck.

5 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/skɑːf/Received-Pronunciation/skɑɹf/Canada, General-American/skɐːf/Australia, New-Zealand
  1. A long, often knitted, garment worn around the neck.

  2. A headscarf.

  3. A neckcloth or cravat.

    dated
Where this word comes from

Probably from Old Northern French escarpe (compare Old French escharpe (“pilgrim's purse suspended from the neck”), which see). The verb is derived from the noun. Doublet of scrip.

verb/skɑːf/Received-Pronunciation/skɑɹf/Canada, General-American/skɐːf/Australia, New-Zealand
  1. To throw on loosely; to put on like a scarf.

    transitive
  2. To dress with a scarf, or as with a scarf; to cover with a loose wrapping.

    transitive
    She scarfed her head.
  3. To cover as or like a scarf.

    transitive
    A cowl scarfed her shoulders.
Where this word comes from

Probably from Old Northern French escarpe (compare Old French escharpe (“pilgrim's purse suspended from the neck”), which see). The verb is derived from the noun. Doublet of scrip.

noun/skɑːf/Received-Pronunciation/skɑɹf/Canada, General-American/skɐːf/Australia, New-Zealand
  1. A type of joint in woodworking, formed by two shaped ends that fit into or onto each other.

    transitive
  2. A groove on one side of a sewing machine needle.

    transitive
  3. A dip or notch or cut made in the trunk of a tree to direct its fall when felling.

    transitive
Where this word comes from

Of uncertain origin. Possibly from Old Norse skarfr, derivative of skera (“to cut”).

verb/skɑːf/Received-Pronunciation/skɑɹf/Canada, General-American/skɐːf/Australia, New-Zealand
  1. To shape by grinding or oxyfuel torch cutting.

    transitive
  2. To form a scarf on the end or edge of, as for a joint in timber, forming a "V" groove for welding adjacent metal plates, metal rods, etc.

    transitive
  3. To unite, as two pieces of timber or metal, by a scarf joint.

    transitive
Where this word comes from

Of uncertain origin. Possibly from Old Norse skarfr, derivative of skera (“to cut”).

verb/skɑːf/Received-Pronunciation/skɑɹf/Canada, General-American/skɐːf/Australia, New-Zealand
  1. To eat very quickly.

    US · slang · transitive
    You sure scarfed that pizza.
Where this word comes from

Generally thought to be a variant, attested since the 1950s, of scoff (“eat (quickly)”) (of which scorf is another attested variant), itself a variant of scaff. Sometimes alternatively suggested to be a dialectal survival of Old English scearfian, sceorfan (“gnaw, bite”) (compare scurf).

noun/skɑːf/Received-Pronunciation/skɑɹf/Canada, General-American/skɐːf/Australia, New-Zealand
  1. A cormorant.

    Scotland · transitive
Where this word comes from

From Old Norse skarfr.

noun/skɑːf/Received-Pronunciation/skɑɹf/Canada, General-American/skɐːf/Australia, New-Zealand
  1. Archaic form of scurf (“skin disease; skin flakes”).

    alt-of · archaic · countable · transitive · uncountable
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.