Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A truck, tub, or basket used in a mine.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A small mine-car of wood or iron.
  • noun In coal-mining, a box in which coals are conveyed from the working place to the shaft. This was formerly done in wicker baskets, whence the name. Also cauf.
  • noun A local English measure of coal. In Durham it is 4 bushels, or 3¼ hundredweight; in Derbyshire, 2¼ level bushels, or 2 hundredweight.
  • noun Also corve.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A basket.
  • noun A large basket used in carrying or hoisting coal or ore.
  • noun A wooden frame, sled, or low-wheeled wagon, to convey coal or ore in the mines.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun mining A large basket, especially as used for coal.
  • noun A basket used to contain live fish underwater.
  • noun mining A wooden frame, sled, or low-wheeled wagon, to convey coal or ore in the mines.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, basket, from Middle Dutch corf or Middle Low German korf, both probably from Latin corbis.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Via Middle Low German korf or Middle Dutch korf, from Latin corbis ‘basket’.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word corf.

Examples

  • [Footnote 1: A corf is a large basket used for carrying coals or other minerals in a mine.]

    Miscellanea Juliana Horatia Gatty Ewing 1863

  • "Or perhaps a half-corf, such as this wee one is carrying."

    A Place Called Freedom Follett, Ken 1995

  • She was barefoot and carried on her back a corf half full of coal.

    A Place Called Freedom Follett, Ken 1995

  • The miner stopped the girl and one of his women lifted the corf.

    A Place Called Freedom Follett, Ken 1995

  • Jen lifted Wullie and slung him over her shoulder: his weight was nothing to a woman who could carry a full corf of coal up these stairs twenty times in a fifteen-hour shift.

    A Place Called Freedom Follett, Ken 1995

  • The miner, seemingly expecting this, caught her, and she felt the weight lifted from her back as the woman removed the corf.

    A Place Called Freedom Follett, Ken 1995

  • "You weigh a good deal less than a corf full of coal," he said with a smile.

    A Place Called Freedom Follett, Ken 1995

  • Although her child was only a week or so old, the poor woman was carrying a full corf.

    A Place Called Freedom Follett, Ken 1995

  • All they could suggest was corf sone which my mother took in the form of tablets and injections in her neck.

    WILD SWANS THREE DAUGHTERS OF CHINA CHANG, JUNG 1991

  • "Yes, 'e' as got a corf," said Emily, watching Maggie with all her eyes.

    The Captives Hugh Walpole 1912

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.