orf

• IPA^(key): /ɔːf/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔːf

From Middle English orf, from Old English orf (“cattle, livestock”), from Proto-West Germanic *orb, from Proto-Germanic *urbą.

Akin to Old English ierfe (“inheritance, livestock, cattle”). More at erf.

orf (uncountable)

1. (obsolete) (Can we verify⁽⁺⁾ this sense?) Cattle.

• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “orf”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.

From Old Norse hrufa (“scab”), from Proto-Germanic *hreubaz (whence also dandruff).

orf (uncountable)

1. (medicine) An exanthemous disease caused by a parapox virus, occurring primarily in sheep and goats but also capable of infecting humans.

See orfe.

orf (plural orfs)

1. Alternative form of orfe (“type of fish”).

Pronunciation spelling.

orf (not comparable)

1. (pronunciation spelling) off
   • 1945, Enid Blyton, The Mystery of the Secret Room:

     'Yes – you clear orf!' said Mr Goon majestically, feeling that he really had got the better of those interfering kids this time.

orf

1. (pronunciation spelling) off

orf

1. (pronunciation spelling) off

• 'fro, FOR, for, for-, fro

From Old Norse orf, from Proto-Germanic *wurba-, related to *warpą.^[1] Cognate with Swedish orv, Old High German worf.

• IPA^(key): /ɔrv/
• Rhymes: -ɔrv

orf n (genitive singular orfs, nominative plural orf)

1. snath
2. string trimmer

   Synonym: sláttuorf n

Inherited from Old English orf, from Proto-West Germanic *orb, from Proto-Germanic *urbą.

• IPA^(key): /ɔrf/

orf (uncountable, dative orve) (uncommon, especially poetic)

1. Livestock, cattle; farm animals.
2. (specifically) A herd of sheep.

• “orf, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-06-2.

Inherited from Proto-West Germanic *orb, from Proto-Germanic *urbą. Cognate with Old Swedish orf.^[1]

orf n

1. cattle
2. livestock^[2]
   • Homilies of the Anglo-Saxon Church

     Þæt fīfte wīte wæs cwealm on heora orfe, swā þæt on ðām lande fornēan nān orf ne belāf, buton Israheles bē ānsund ġestōd.

     The fifth plague was a pestilence among their livestock, such that in the land almost no livestock were left, except for those of Israel, who remained healthy.

Strong a-stem:

• Middle English: orf