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corn1 definition

corn (kôrn)

noun

  1. Now Dial. a tiny, hard particle, as of salt or sand; granule; grain
  2. a small, hard seed or seedlike fruit, esp. a seed or grain of a cereal grass; kernel: now chiefly in compounds, as peppercorn, barleycorn
    1. a cultivated American cereal plant (Zea mays) of the grass family, with the grain borne on cobs enclosed in husks; maize
    2. the ears or kernels of this cereal plant
  3. Brit.
    1. the seeds of all cereal grasses, as wheat, rye, barley, etc.; grain
    2. any plant or plants producing grain
  4. the leading cereal crop in a particular place, as wheat in England or oats in Scotland and Ireland
  5. Informal corn whiskey
  6. Informal ideas, humor, music, etc. regarded as old-fashioned, trite, banal, or sentimental

Etymology: ME & OE < IE base *ger-, to ripen, mature, grow old > grain, churn, Gr gerōn, old man

transitive verb

  1. to form into granules
  2. to preserve or pickle with salt granules or in brine
  3. to feed grain to (animals)
corn2 definition

corn (kôrn)

noun

a hard, thick, painful growth of skin, esp. on a toe, caused by pressure or friction

Etymology: ME & OFr corne < L cornu, horn

Webster's New World College Dictionary Copyright © 2009 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio.
Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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