corner
/ˈkɔːnə
/noun
1A place or angle where two sides or edges meet: Jan sat at one corner of the table...
- The sides are straight and the corners at right angles.
- If your site includes any corners or other right angles, look for stone that already shows this shape.
- All the sides, corners, angles and areas are the same.
1.1The area inside a room or other space near the place where two walls or other surfaces meet: the colour TV in the corner of the room...
- I did as I was told and placed myself in a chair near the corner of the room.
- The woman continued to stare at her from her seat near the corner of the room, but she warmly smiled and got up.
- If you answered ‘yes’ to either of the above, then go straight to the nearest corner of the room without passing go.
Synonyms
nook, cranny, niche, recess, bay, booth, alcove;
inglenook, ingle, apse;
crevice, cavity, hole, hollow, indentation;
secret place, hideaway, hideout
informal hidey-hole
1.2A place where two or more streets meet: the huge bookshop on the corner...
- An empty house on the corner of Birch Street, West Bowling, is the first project to be blitzed by the group in a bid to improve the appearance of the area.
- We fared much better at Vox Populi, a funky old house on the corner of a tree-lined street.
- Speaking of which, has anyone bought that old brick house on the corner of Mason Street?
1.3A sharp bend in a road: they took the corner in a skidding turn...
- The aluminum-composite hybrid suspension handles sharp corners and loose curves with no problem.
- I noticed that a small crowd of people had gathered around a sharp corner of the road.
- This new circuit will allow for the testing of braking system performance in snow and ice conditions on sharp corners and twisty turns.
Synonyms
bend, curve, arc, kink, dog-leg, crook, deviation, turn, turning, junction, fork, intersection;
angle, projection, apex, cusp;
British hairpin, hairpin bend
1.4 Climbing, British A place where two planes of rock meet at an angle of between 60° and 120°.Crawl through then traverse around the corner and along the small ledge to belay in the corner beneath the chimney....
- Climb the corner easily to a small ledge beneath a huge crack.
- Climb the corner directly without using the ledges on the right.
2A location or area, especially one regarded as secluded or remote: fountains are discovered in quiet corners and sleepy squares dance professionals from all corners of the globe attended the five-day festival figurative she couldn’t bear journalists prying into every corner of her life...
- Both of the young women and two of the younger men were out traveling the four corners of the kingdom to discover the problems that the people needed solved.
- This unique collection boasts a wide range of contributors of diverse backgrounds, drawn from the four corners of Ireland.
- Over the years it has grown in popularity and attracts a crowd from the four corners of Ireland, as well as a lot of people from Northern Ireland and the UK.
Synonyms
district, region, area, section, quarter, part
informal neck of the woods
3A position in which one dominates the supply of a particular commodity: London doesn’t have a corner on film festivals
4A difficult or awkward situation: I didn’t wait for the prosecutor to try to get me in a corner...
- They have actually had to be virtually backed into a corner.
- Such manoeuvres, however, are perhaps the inevitable consequence of scientists who are backed into a corner.
- We have been backed into a corner again by the council and are now facing the added financial burden of upgrading to meet new regulations.
Synonyms
predicament, plight, tricky situation, ticklish situation, awkward situation, tight corner, tight spot, spot of trouble, bit of bother, difficulty, problem, puzzle, quandary, dilemma, muddle, mess, quagmire, mire, mare's nest, dire straits;
with nowhere to turn;
West Indian comess
informal pickle, jam, stew, fix, hole, scrape, bind, fine kettle of fish, hot water, how-do-you-do
5 (also corner kick) Soccer A place kick taken by the attacking side from a corner of the field after the ball has been sent over the byline by a defender: he put a corner kick deep into the heart of the Southampton penalty area...
- Before the corner kick, Solomartin picks up a yellow card for shirt-tugging.
- Two goals in five minutes put Windermere ahead when Liam Salisbury headed in from a corner kick and a long ball found Matt Parkinson, who beat two men and the keeper.
- Parkville upped it another gear and Colin Coady got on the end of a corner kick to poke the ball home and secure all three points for Parkville.
5.1A free hit in field hockey, taken from the corner of the field.‘Our goal scoring went up, we could score field goals, we could score from penalty corners,’ he said....
- When I first played hockey as a junior, rules prohibited undercutting on penalty corners.
- Chile finally scored on their fifth penalty corner by Jorge O'Rayn.
6 Boxing & Wrestling Each of the diagonally opposite ends of the ring, where a contestant rests between rounds: when the bell sounded he turned to go back to his corner...
- They stood in opposite corners of the ring, our man with his back to the tent fighter, waiting to be called to fight by the clang of the bell.
- Dundee is livid in the corner between rounds while Foster has a smug look.
- Clay came to his corner after the fourth round complaining of a burning sensation in both eyes.
6.1A contestant’s supporters or seconds: Hodkinson was encouraged by his corner...
- McCline got up at the count of nine as the bell sounded to end the round, but his corner would not allow him to continue.
- It was apparent their corners told them that, whomever won round 4, would probably win the bout.
7British A triangular cut from the hind end of a side of bacon.
verb [with object]
1Force (a person or animal) into a place or situation from which it is hard to escape: the man was eventually cornered by police dogs...
- Frank led a raiding party of eight men who eventually succeeded in cornering the goat after a two-hour operation.
- The distressed bird was eventually cornered by one of the security officers, who used his cap to gather it into custody.
- The fox by now had run for cover, but each hole he went to was of course filled in, we finally catch up with the dogs who had by now got the fox cornered by a hedge.
Synonyms
drive into a corner, run to earth, run to ground, bring to bay, cut off, block off, trap, hem in, shut in, pen in, close in, enclose, surround;
capture, catch, waylay, ambush
archaic ambuscade
1.1Detain (someone) in conversation: I managed to corner Gary for fifteen minutes...
- Cedric was a great listener, and could corner people into conversations really well.
- Finally, I managed to corner him in a way he could evade, but couldn't escape.
- She had managed to corner him and was currently explaining her plans for graduation.
2Control (a market) by dominating the supply of a particular commodity: whether they will corner the market in graphics software remains to be seen...
- Last year, his attempt to corner the market in television football fell foul of British monopoly authorities.
- If you could bring together the handful of people who knew a niche, you could all but corner the market in it.
- No way was he going to let them corner the market in novelty and wonder.
Synonyms
gain control of, gain dominance of, take over, control, dominate, monopolize, capture
informal hog, sew up
archaic engross
2.1Establish a corner in (a commodity): you cornered vanadium and made a killing...
- Also unheard-of was a cartel cornering a commodity such as crude oil, as long as the medium of exchange was gold.
3 [no object] (Of a vehicle) go round a bend in a road: no squeal is evident from the tyres when cornering fast...
- When the two-seater car is cornering, the outer wheels tilt inwards, leaving only the inner area of these tyres in contact with the road.
- A special microprocessor inside the seats takes a split-second to decide which airbags should be inflated to provide body support when the car is cornering.
- Alloy wheels can provide more responsive acceleration and braking as well as added strength, which can reduce tire deflection in cornering.
Phrases
(just) around (or round) the corner
fight one's corner
in someone's corner
on (or at or in) every corner
see someone/thing out of (or from) the corner of one's eye
Origin
Middle English: from Anglo-Norman French, based on Latin cornu 'horn, tip, corner'.
corn from Old English:
Corn, meaning ‘the seed of wheat and similar plants’, is an Old English word whose root may date back as far as farming itself. The modern sense of corny is a development of an earlier sense, dating from the 1930s, that described something, especially music, of a simple and unsophisticated type that appealed to people living in the country. Kernel (Old English) is based on corn and was originally a ‘little corn or seed’. The other kind of corn (Late Middle English), the small area of thickened horn-like skin on your foot, comes from Latin cornu ‘horn’. Cornu, which could also mean ‘tip’ or ‘corner’, is the source too of corner (Middle English)—you can think of a corner as the part of something that sticks out or forms the tip.
The trumpet-like cornet (Late Middle English) is now made from brass, but it was originally a wind instrument made out of a horn, and Latin cornu is again the source. The early 20th century ice-cream cornet gets its name because it resembles that of the instrument. One brand of ice cream is called a Cornetto (‘little horn’), and this Italian word was also the name of an old musical instrument, a straight or curved wooden wind instrument with finger holes and a cup-shaped mouthpiece. See also horn