corves

[kawrvz]

noun

plural of corf.

corf

[kawrf]

noun, plural corves [kawrvz] /kɔrvz/. British.

Mining.

a small wagon for carrying coal, ore, etc.
a wicker basket formerly used for this purpose.

a basket, cage, or boxlike structure with perforations for keeping lobsters or fish alive in water.

Origin of corf

1350–1400; Middle English < Middle Dutch (cognate with German Korb) < Latin corbis basket; cf. corbeil

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for corves

Historical Examples of corves

Each day the corves had brought the same news from the kitchen.
Atlantic Narratives
Mary Antin
Corves of 20,000 men used to be forced to clear it out year after year, but at last it was abandoned.
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 14, Slice 7
Various
Indeed, certain impious villeins complain, "The tithe is worse than the imposts and the corves."
Life on a Mediaeval Barony
William Stearns Davis
Next to the corves, the monster grievance of the third estate was the system of enrolments for the militia.
Diderot and the Encyclopaedists (Vol 1 of 2)
John Morley
What the collection of the taxes had begun was almost always brought to a climax by the corves.
History Of Egypt, Chalda, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 2 (of 12)
G. Maspero

British Dictionary definitions for corves

corves

noun

the plural of corf

corf

noun plural corves

British a wagon or basket used formerly in mines

Word Origin for corf

C14: from Middle Dutch corf or Middle Low German korf, probably from Latin corbis basket

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012