kerf vs knot

kerf

noun
  • The flattened, cut-off end of a branch or tree; a stump or sawn-off cross-section. 

  • The portion or quantity (e.g. of wood, hay, turf, wool, etc.) removed or cut off in a given stroke. 

  • The distance between diverging saw teeth. 

  • The groove or slit created by cutting or sawing something; an incision. 

verb
  • To cut a piece of wood or other material with several kerfs to allow it to be bent. 

knot

noun
  • The whorl left in lumber by the base of a branch growing out of the tree's trunk. 

  • A maze-like pattern. 

  • A looping of a piece of string or of any other long, flexible material that cannot be untangled without passing one or both ends of the material through its loops. 

  • A tangled clump. 

  • Any knob, lump, swelling, or protuberance. 

  • A kind of epaulet; a shoulder knot. 

  • One of a variety of shore birds; red-breasted sandpiper (variously Calidris canutus or Tringa canutus). 

  • A bond of union; a connection; a tie. 

  • A non-self-intersecting closed curve in (e.g., three-dimensional) space that is an abstraction of a knot (in sense 1 above). 

  • A unit of speed, equal to one nautical mile per hour. (From the practice of counting the number of knots in the log-line (as it is paid out) in a standard time. Traditionally spaced at one every ¹⁄₁₂₀ of a mile.) 

  • Local swelling in a tissue area, especially skin, often due to injury. 

  • The bulbus glandis. 

  • A difficult situation. 

  • A tightened and contracted part of a muscle that feels like a hard lump under the skin. 

  • A node. 

  • A group of people or things. 

  • A unit of indicated airspeed, calibrated airspeed, or equivalent airspeed, which varies in its relation to the unit of speed so as to compensate for the effects of different ambient atmospheric conditions on aircraft performance. 

  • In omegaverse fiction, a bulbus glandis-like structure on the penis of a male alpha, which ties him to an omega during intercourse. 

  • A nautical mile. 

  • The point on which the action of a story depends; the gist of a matter. 

  • A protuberant joint in a plant. 

  • The swelling of the bulbus glandis in members of the dog family, Canidae. 

verb
  • To form knots. 

  • To form into a knot; to tie with a knot or knots. 

  • To knit knots for a fringe. 

  • To unite closely; to knit together. 

  • To form wrinkles in the forehead, as a sign of concentration, concern, surprise, etc. 

How often have the words kerf and knot occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )