corn

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

• noun A horny thickening of the skin, usually on or near a toe, resulting from pressure or friction.
• 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.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun An abbreviation of Cornish and of Cornwall.
• To form corns or seeds in the ear or pod; kern: said of cereals or pulse.
• 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 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.

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.
• 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 called Indian 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 or southern 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 term Indian 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.
• noun (Bot.) a weed (Agrostemma Githago syn. Lychnis Githago), having bright flowers, common in grain fields.
• noun (Bot.) a plant of the genus Gladiolus; -- called also sword lily.
• noun (Zoöl.) A small fly (Anthomyia ze) whose larva or maggot destroys seed corn after it has been planted.
• noun [U. S.] a fritter having green Indian corn mixed through its batter.
• noun laws regulating trade in corn, especially those in force in Great Britain till 1846, prohibiting the importation of foreign grain for home consumption, except when the price rose above a certain rate.