core

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a small group of indispensable persons or things

   five periodicals make up the core of their publishing program

2. 2
   noun

   the center of an object

   the ball has a titanium core

3. 3
   verb

   to remove the core or center from

   core an apple

4. 4
   noun

   In general usage, an essential part of a thing surrounded by other essential things.

   the core of an apple or quince

5. 5
   noun

   The most important part of a thing or aggregate of things wherever located and whether of any determinate location at all; the essence.

   the core of a subject

6. 6
   adj

   Forming the most important or essential part.

   Privately held businesses may hold assets or have charges to their financial statements which are not core to their main business activity.

7. 7
   adj

   Deeply and authentically involved in the culture surrounding the sport.

   Our interest is not in core skaters such as young males and pro skaters but the voices of those on the periphery of the subculture.

8. 8
   verb

   To cut or drill through the core of (something).

   But the other thing to take into account is, when you look at the Katahdin and the Polyphemus, they both have their boiler plants pretty much amidships or slightly forward of amidships, which means that, in the event of a heat-lance strike on the boiler room, not only is that gonna core through the ship right at the center of mass, which is obviously bad for its continued structural stability, but the boilers going up is gonna incinerate pretty much anybody on the bridge, which is gonna leave it completely out of control, and is probably gonna break the ship clean in half right there and then, none of which really speaks to the ship's being able to continue onwards with enough momentum to take down a Martian tripod.

Etymology

From Middle English core, kore, coor (“apple-core, pith”), of obscure and uncertain origin. Possibly of native English origin, from Old English *cor, related to Old English *coruc, *corc (diminutive) (> Middle English cork, crok (“core of an apple or other fruit, heart of an onion”)) and Old English corn (“seed", also "grain”); or alternatively perhaps from Old French cuer (“heart”), from Latin cor (“heart”); or from Old French cors (“body”), from Latin corpus (“body”). Compare also Middle English colk, coke, coll (“the heart or centre of an apple or onion, core”), Dutch kern (“core”), German…