corn

A type of callus, usually on the feet or hands.

Noun Commonwealth, uncountable

  1. Any cereal plant (or its grain) that is the main crop or staple of a country or region.
    • And hee ſaid, Beholde, I haue heard that there is corne in Egypt: get you downe thither and buy for vs from thence, that we may liue, and not die. - 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert...
    • Among the divinities that dwelt on Mount Olympus, none was more friendly to the husbandman than Demeter, goddess of corn. - 1847, John Mason Neale, Stories from heathen mythology and Greek history, page 115:
    • Moreover, however much the individual manufacturer might give the rein to his old lust for gain, the spokesmen and political leaders of the manufacturing class ordered a change of front and of speech towards the...

    Synonyms: cereal grain

  2. Maize, a grain crop of the species Zea mays.
    • The planting or sowing of maize, exclusively called corn, was just accomplished on the Town Hill, when I reached it. - 1809, Edward Augustus Kendall, Travels Through the Northern Parts of the United States:
    • Corn was the staff of life for many Indian people before contact, and it became the staff of life for many European colonists. Corn was higher in nutrition than most other grain crops. John Lawson, who travelled in...

    Synonyms: Indian corn

    Hypernyms: grain corn

  3. A grain or seed, especially of a cereal crop.
    • He paid her the nominal fee of two corns of barley.
    • Verely, verely, I ſay vnto you, Except a corne of wheat fall into the ground, and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. - 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert...
  4. A small, hard particle.
    • The least corn of sand is not so small to the whole earth, as man is to the heaven:[…] - 1612–1626, Joseph Hall, “[Contemplations upon the Principal Passages in the Holy Story. Book I.] Of Man.”, in Josiah Pratt,...
    • corns of powder - 1852, Thomas Antisell, Hand-book of the Useful Arts:
  5. A type of granular snow formed by repeated melting and refreezing, often in mountain spring conditions.

    Synonyms: corn snow

  6. Bullets, ammunition, and charge and discharge of firearms.
    • R.I.P Scumpy ah you did say Popcaan And if a boy diss we clap corn. - 2014 June 9, Andrae Hugh Sutherland respectively Popcaan of Popcaan, “Where We Come From” (track 13), in Where We Come From:
    • We got spinners and dotties We got .40s and MACs We got nuff live corn […] See the four-door pausing Skengs out, everyone runnin But the corn just slapped and floored em 50 shots in that mop - 2016 September 9, Liquez...
  7. Money.
    • You know dem have wedge while we have corn. Say Cockney say be first, my son! We just say Gwan! - 1984, Smiley Culture, Cockney Translator (song title):

Origin

Inherited from Middle English corn, from Old English corn, from Proto-West Germanic *korn, from Proto-Germanic *kurną, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵr̥h₂nóm (“grain; worn-down”), from *ǵerh₂- (“grow old, mature”). Cognate with Dutch koren, German Low German Koorn, German Korn, Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish korn; see also Albanian grurë, Russian зерно́ (zernó), Czech zrno, Latin grānum and Lithuanian žirnis. Doublet of grain, gram, granum, and grao. The sense maize (Zea mays) is an ellipsis of Indian corn that developed in 18th century North America.

Forms

corns

Related

barley cereal grain maize oats rye wheat

Derived

acknowledge the corn Asian corn borer baby corn barleycorn blue corn breadcorn broom corn broomcorn calico corn California corn flakes candy corn can of corn carry corn cord grass cornball cornbind cornbird corn blotch leafminer corn borer corn bunting corncake corn cheese corn chip corn circle

Noun Entry 2

  1. A type of callus, usually on the feet or hands.
    • Welcome Gentlemen, / Ladies that haue their toes / Vnplagu’d with Cornes, will walke about with you:[…] - c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares...

    Synonyms: clavus

  2. An inflammatory disease of a horse's hoof, at the caudal part of the sole.
  3. Skin hyperplasia with underlying fibroma between both digits of cattle.

Origin

Inherited from Middle English corne, from Old French corn (modern French cor), from Latin cornū. Doublet of corno, cornu, and horn.

Forms

corns

Hyponyms

callus

Noun Internet, euphemistic

  1. pornography; porn

Origin

Rhyming euphemism for porn, and with influence from the emoji substitute 🌽.

Derived

Cornhub cornography cornstar

Noun Canada, US

  1. Something (e.g., acting, humour, music, or writing) which is deemed old-fashioned or intended to induce emotion.
    • He had a sharp wit, true enough, but also a good, healthy mountaineer's love of pure corn, the slapstick stuff, the in-jokes that get funnier with every repetition and never amuse anybody who wasn't there. - 1975,...
    • There were lots of jokes on the show and they were pure corn, but the audience didn't mind. - 1986, Linda Martin, Kerry Segrave, Women in Comedy:
    • The bulk of this humor was pure corn, but as hillbilly material it was meant to be that way. - 2007, Bob L. Cox, Fiddlin' Charlie Bowman: an East Tennessee old-time music pioneer and his musical family:

Origin

From corny.

Derived

cornball

Verb

  1. To granulate; to form (a substance) into grains.
    • to corn gunpowder
  2. To preserve using coarse salt, e.g. corned beef.
  3. To provide (an animal) with corn (typically maize; or, in Scotland, oats) for feed.
    • Corn the horses.
  4. To render intoxicated.
    • ale strong enough to corn one
  5. To shoot up with bullets as by a shotgun (corn).
    • Anywhere, anytime, I'll get him, if he's in love; I'll corn his wedding He backed his wetter, I backed my wetter but who really held that wetting? - 2019 September 11, Yanko, “Next Up”, in #ACGK, 1:49:

Forms

corns corning corned