I. ˈkȯ(ə)rn, ˈkȯ(ə)n noun
( -s )
Usage: often attributive
Etymology: Middle English, from Old English; akin to Old High German & Old Norse korn grain, Gothic kaurn, Latin granum, Greek gēras old age, Sanskrit jīrṇa worn out, frail, old; basic meaning: ripening
1. now chiefly dialect : a small hard particle : grain
a corn of salt
a corn of gunpowder
2. : a small hard seed (as of an apple, a pepper, or a coffee cherry)
3.
a. : the seeds of any of the cereal grasses used for food ; especially : the seeds of the important cereal crop (as wheat, oats, or Indian corn) of a particular region
b. Britain : wheat
c. Scot & Irish : oats
d. : indian corn
4. : the kernels of sweet corn or maize served as a vegetable while still soft and milky
a dish of corn
— see corn on the cob
5.
a. : a plant that produces corn — now used of the grain crop, the stalks and ears after reaping, or the ears ready for threshing
b. corns plural , obsolete : kinds or crops of grain : cereals
c. obsolete : the stalk of a cereal plant
playing on pipes of corn — Shakespeare
6. : corn whiskey
7. : a moderate yellow that is redder and deeper than colonial yellow, greener, lighter, and stronger than brass, and redder, lighter, and stronger than mustard yellow
8. : something (as writing, music, or acting) that is corny
plot dealing with … Greek gods, nymphs, and shepherds, and a score … that has become dreadfully familiar as dinner music. … One false move and it would degenerate into intolerable corn — Winthrop Sargeant
it's corny, but corn is the staff of entertainment life — Yasha Frank
9. : corn snow
•
- acknowledge the corn
II. verb
( -ed/-ing/-s )
transitive verb
1. : to form into grains : granulate
corn gunpowder
2.
a. : to preserve or season with salt in grains : cure by salting : sprinkle with salt
b. : to salt lightly in brine containing preservatives, sweetening, and sometimes spices
you can corn beef in a few weeks
corn a tongue
3. : to plant (land) with corn
corning my land to death — Russell Lord
4. : to feed with corn or grain
corn horses
intransitive verb
1. obsolete : to become granular
2. : to form or fill with the corn or seed — used of cereals or pulse or their ears or pods
III. noun
( -s )
Etymology: Middle English coorne, from Middle French corne horn, from Latin cornu — more at horn
1. : a horny hardening and thickening of the epidermis at some point (as on a toe) produced by friction or pressure and formed into a central conical mass extending into the dermis — called also clavus ; compare callosity
2. : a reddish painful discoloration of the sole of the fore hoof of a horse usually caused by pressure resulting from improper shoeing and resultant bruises of the velvety tissue overlying the horn which diffuse blood into it
3. : the abnormal growth on the feet of poultry affected with bumblefoot