Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Any of numerous cultivated forms of a widely grown, usually tall annual cereal grass (Zea mays) bearing grains or kernels on large ears.
- noun The grains or kernels of this plant, used as food for humans and livestock or for the extraction of an edible oil or starch.
- noun An ear of this plant.
- noun Chiefly British Any of various cereal plants or grains, especially the principal crop cultivated in a particular region, such as wheat in England or oats in Scotland.
- noun A single grain of a cereal plant.
- noun A seed or fruit of various other plants, such as a peppercorn.
- noun Corn snow.
- noun Informal Corn whiskey.
- noun Slang Something considered trite, dated, melodramatic, or unduly sentimental.
- intransitive verb To cause to form hard particles; granulate.
- intransitive verb To season and preserve with granulated salt.
- intransitive verb To preserve (beef, for example) in brine.
- intransitive verb To feed (animals) with corn or grain.
- intransitive verb To form hard particles; become grainy.
- noun A horny thickening of the skin, usually on or near a toe, resulting from pressure or friction.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A single seed of certain plants, especially of cereal plants, as wheat, rye, barley, and maize; a grain.
- noun The seeds of cereal plants in general, in bulk or quantity; grain: as, corn is dear or scarce.
- noun The plants which produce corn when growing in the field; the stalks and ears, or the stalks, ears, and seeds after reaping and before threshing: as, a field of corn; a sheaf or a shock of corn; a load of corn. The plants or stalks are included in the term corn until the seed is separated from the ears.
- noun A small hard particle; a grain.
- noun A thickening or callosity of the epidermis, usually with a central core or nucleus, caused by undue pressure or friction, as by boots, shoes, or implements of occupation. Corns are most common on the feet.
- noun Any horny excrescence.
- To form corns or seeds in the ear or pod; kern: said of cereals or pulse.
- To preserve and season with salt in grains; lay down in brine, as meat: as, to
corn beef or pork. - To granulate; form into small grains.
- To feed with oats, as a horse.
- To plant with corn.
- To render intoxicated; make drunk, as with whisky.
- To beg corn of farmers on St. Thomas's day, December 21st.
- noun Same as
corn-starch , 2. - noun A term applied to flour made from rice or other grain.
- noun A recent product which consists of the finely ground grain of Indian corn exclusive of the chit or germ. It is finer than corn meal, and being nearly free from oil is of better keeping quality; but it has lost the corn flavor and lacks gluten, and hence must be used in mixture with strong wheat flour.
- noun A brand of corn-feed made up mostly of the hulls and germs of maize-kernels.
- noun An abbreviation of
Cornish and of Cornwall.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A thickening of the epidermis at some point, esp. on the toes, by friction or pressure. It is usually painful and troublesome.
- transitive verb To preserve and season with salt in grains; to sprinkle with salt; to cure by salting; now, specifically, to salt slightly in brine or otherwise.
- transitive verb To form into small grains; to granulate.
- transitive verb To feed with corn or (in Sctland) oats.
- transitive verb colloq. To render intoxicated.
- transitive verb a house or place where powder is corned or granulated.
- noun A single seed of certain plants, as wheat, rye, barley, and maize; a grain.
- noun The various farinaceous grains of the cereal grasses used for food, as wheat, rye, barley, maize, oats.
- noun a tall cereal plant (
Zea mays ) bearing its seeds as large kernels in multiple rows on the surface of a hard cylindrical ear, the core of which (the cob) is not edible; -- also calledIndian corn and, in technical literature,maize . There are several kinds; as,yellow corn , which grows chiefly in the Northern States, and is yellow when ripe;white corn orsouthern corn , which grows to a great height, and has long white kernels;sweet corn , comprising a number of sweet and tender varieties, grown chiefly at the North, some of which have kernels that wrinkle when ripe and dry;pop corn , any small variety, used for popping. Corn seeds may be cooked while on the ear and eaten directly, or may be stripped from the ear and cooked subsequently. The termIndian corn is often used to refer to a primitive type of corn having kernels of varied color borne on the same cob; it is used for decoration, especially in the fall. - noun The plants which produce corn, when growing in the field; the stalks and ears, or the stalks, ears, and seeds, after reaping and before thrashing.
- noun A small, hard particle; a grain.
- noun a ball of popped corn stuck together with soft candy from molasses or sugar.
- noun bread made of Indian meal.
- noun a kind of corn bread; johnny cake; hoecake.
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
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Examples
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Didn't kow much if any of this about corn and I always kind of wondered why they called it *sweet corn*.
At My Table 2006
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However, in spite of this difference in quality, color, and season, all kinds of corn used as a vegetable are called _green corn_ and may be prepared in exactly the same ways.
Woman's Institute Library of Cookery Volume 2: Milk, Butter and Cheese; Eggs; Vegetables
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[178-11] The _corn_ is grain of some kind, not our maize or Indian corn.
Journeys Through Bookland, Vol. 6 Charles Herbert Sylvester
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The two principal varieties of field corn, when prepared as cereal food for man, are _hominy_ and _corn meal_.
Woman's Institute Library of Cookery Volume 1: Essentials of Cookery; Cereals; Bread; Hot Breads
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The seeds of the maize plant, or Indian corn, especially the variety known as _sweet corn_, are eaten as a vegetable when they are immature.
Woman's Institute Library of Cookery Volume 2: Milk, Butter and Cheese; Eggs; Vegetables
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When the wind sweeps over the corn they say at Conitz, in West Prussia, The Steer is running in the corn; when the corn is thick and strong in one spot, they say in some parts of East Prussia, The Bull is lying in the corn.
Chapter 48. The Corn-Spirit as an Animal. § 7. The Corn-spirit as a Bull, Cow, or Ox 1922
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When the white man came to this country he found the Indians using corn; for this reason, in addition to its name _maize_, it is called _Indian corn_.
Agriculture for Beginners Revised Edition Frank Lincoln Stevens 1902
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“Tri corn cynghlud y sydd; _corn cynhauav_, corn dadlau, a chorn goly-chwyd.”
Y Gododin A Poem of the Battle of Cattraeth Aneurin 1836
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This is misleading, since there are several chemical processing steps required, with consequent chemical changes that are not reflected in the term 'corn sugar.'
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A year ago, the Corn Refiners Association asked the Food and Drug Administration if it could start using the term "corn sugar" as an alternative to high fructose corn syrup.
crunchysaviour commented on the word corn
Hate this word when pronounced by Americans.
August 15, 2008
reesetee commented on the word corn
Why?
August 15, 2008
crunchysaviour commented on the word corn
KWOAAARRNNN.
That's why.
August 21, 2008
chained_bear commented on the word corn
That's odd. I pronounce it "corn."
This is one of those words I dislike when Brits/Aussies pronounce, since they can't say an R correctly. :-)
"Cohn." Bleh.
August 21, 2008
bilby commented on the word corn
I'm with crunchy. Who says you need a vibra-twang snozzwhanger up your nose to pronounce an R? Admittedly, I have two Filipino native speakers in my office and they do an even worse job on this word.
August 21, 2008
plethora commented on the word corn
That's odd. I also pronounce it "corn".
Funny old world, innit?
August 21, 2008
qroqqa commented on the word corn
I too pronounce it like 'corn': /kɔːn/, rhymes with 'pawn'.
August 21, 2008
Prolagus commented on the word corn
I pronounce it "corn", rhymes with my mispronunciations of torn, horn, born...
August 21, 2008
chained_bear commented on the word corn
How weird that we all pronounce it "corn." We must all have something in common! ;)
August 21, 2008
reesetee commented on the word corn
I have never, ever heard someone pronounce corn as KWOAAARRNNN. However, I have heard people say "corn." Lots of them. With no vibra-twang snozzwhanger up their noses.
How odd.
August 21, 2008
chained_bear commented on the word corn
*pronounces "corn" as KWOAAARRNNN just to start a fight*
;)
August 21, 2008
Prolagus commented on the word corn
KWOAAARRNNN may describe the Brooklyn pronunciation, maybe...
August 21, 2008
rolig commented on the word corn
The British usually pronounce "corn" in a way that rhymes with "days" and "gaze." Strange.
August 22, 2008
reesetee commented on the word corn
Come to think of it, there is a little pocket of Pennsylvania where it's pronounced "peas."
August 22, 2008
bilby commented on the word corn
I don't have a problem with corn here but I often cringe at how badly Australians mangle foreign words, even those that shouldn't be too difficult. At the Olympics, one of the better water polo teams comes from Mont 'n' Agro, home to lots of angry sportspeople I guess. The USA apparently has a sprinter from Wacko, Texas. Lucky he's not a politician as he would stand no chance in the presidential race against Oh bummer.
August 22, 2008
pterodactyl commented on the word corn
Good heavens, bilby and reesetee -- how is it that NEITHER of you bracketed vibra-twang snozzwhanger?
August 22, 2008
reesetee commented on the word corn
I didn't feel I should, it being a bilby invention. :-)
August 22, 2008
frogapplause commented on the word corn
Bilby invented corn? Great invention!
August 22, 2008
reesetee commented on the word corn
He did, sure, but he pronounces it oddly.
August 22, 2008
bilby commented on the word corn
Snozzwhanger comes from Willy Wonka. It doesn't grab me that much, although it was kinda the right word I needed here. Vibra-twang sounds like something advertised on tv late at night *shudders*
August 23, 2008
cjmconnors commented on the word corn
It's a shame the images are completely irrelevant.
September 30, 2011
ruzuzu commented on the word corn
As a resident of the Cornhusker State, I was going to agree with you, cjmconnors, and complain about how only half of the pictures had fields or drawings or baskets full of corn--the rest seem to be wheat or something--but then I looked at the Century Dictionary's definitions and saw that "the word comprehends all the kinds of grain used for the food of men or of horses, but in Great Britain it is generally applied to wheat, rye, oats, and barley, and in Scotland generally restricted to oats."
September 30, 2011
ruzuzu commented on the word corn
However, I could complain that none of the images have a corn maze.* The nerve!
*I'm sure the British spelling would be corn maize.
September 30, 2011
frogapplause commented on the word corn
Kindly record how you pronounce "corn", crunchysaviour.
October 1, 2011
vendingmachine commented on the word corn
Nice addition, ruzuzu.
to form into grains : GRANULATE
to preserve or season with salt in grains
to cure or preserve in brine containing preservatives and often seasonings
corned beef
January 16, 2023