Definition of "scarf"

scarf¹

/skɑːf/

noun
plural scarves or scarfs
1. A long, often knitted, garment worn around the neck.
  Quotations
  Now that she had rested and had fed from the luncheon tray Mrs. Broome had just removed, she had reverted to her normal gaiety. She looked cool in a grey tailored cotton dress with a terracotta scarf and shoes and her hair a black silk helmet.
  1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 2, in The China Governess‎
2. A headscarf.
3. (dated) A neckcloth or cravat.
verb
third-person singular simple present scarfs, present participle scarfing, simple past and past participle scarfed
1. To throw on loosely; to put on like a scarf.
  Quotations
  My sea-gown scarfed about me.
  c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act V, scene ii]
2. To dress with a scarf, or as with a scarf; to cover with a loose wrapping.

scarf²

/skɑːf/

noun
plural scarfs
1. A type of joint in woodworking.
2. A groove on one side of a sewing machine needle.
3. A dip or notch or cut made in the trunk of a tree to direct its fall when felling.
verb
third-person singular simple present scarfs, present participle scarfing, simple past and past participle scarfed
1. To shape by grinding.
2. To form a scarf on the end or edge of, as for a joint in timber, forming a "V" groove for welding adjacent metal plates, metal rods, etc.
3. To unite, as two pieces of timber or metal, by a scarf joint.

scarf³

/skɑːf/

verb
third-person singular simple present scarfs, present participle scarfing, simple past and past participle scarfed
1. (transitive, US, slang) To eat very quickly.
  Quotations
  We dug in. We ate everything there was to eat on the table. We ate like there was no tomorrow. We didn't talk. We ate. We scarfed. We grazed that table. We were into serious eating. We finished everything, including half a strawberry pie.
  1983, Raymond Carver, Cathedral

scarf⁴

/skɑːf/

noun
plural scarfs
1. (Scotland) A cormorant.

scarf⁵

/skɑːf/

noun
countable and uncountable, plural scarfs
1. Archaic form of scurf (“skin disease; skin flakes”).