scarf

Man wearing a red scarf

Meanings

A long, often knitted, garment worn around the neck.
A headscarf.
A neckcloth or cravat.
A type of joint in woodworking.
A groove on one side of a sewing machine needle.
A dip or notch or cut made in the trunk of a tree to direct its fall when felling.
A cormorant.

To throw on loosely; to put on like a scarf.
To dress with a scarf, or as with a scarf; to cover with a loose wrapping.
To shape by grinding.
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.
To unite, as two pieces of timber or metal, by a scarf joint.
To eat very quickly.

Probably from Old Northern French escarpe (compare Old French escharpe ("pilgrim's purse suspended from the neck")). The verb is derived from the noun. scrip.
Of uncertain origin. Possibly from Old Norse skarfr, derivative of skera.
Generally thought to be a variant, attested since the 1950s, of scoff (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 (compare scurf).
From Old Norse skarfr.

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