Area of thickened skin on or between the toes. It is usually caused by pressure from part of the shoe. Treatment of painful corns is an important part of chiropody.
Cultivated New World plant Zea mays of the grass family, with the grain borne on cobs enclosed in husks. It is also called corn or Indian corn. It was domesticated by 6,000 BC in Mesoamerica, where it grew wild. It became the staple crop for the Neolithic farming villages and civilizations of Mexico and Peru; it was cultivated throughout most of the New World at the point of European contact. It was brought to Europe, Asia, and Africa by the colonizing powers, but its use is mainly for animal feed in those regions. In the US, a corn monoculture dominates the Midwest, where many hybrids have been developed for both human food and animal feed. Today it is grown extensively in all subtropical and warm temperate regions, and its range has been extended to colder zones by hardy varieties developed in the 1960s.
Corn is eaten fresh (on the cob or creamed), canned (niblets), frozen, and in dried forms (cornmeal, popcorn), and is made into hominy, polenta, cornflour, and corn bread. It is pressed for corn oil and fermented into a mash, which, distilled, is corn liquor (whiskey). Most of the methods of storing, processing, and cooking corn can be traced to Native American recipes. Popcorn has been found in archeological sites in the SW dating from 4,000 BC. Corn stalks are made into paper and hardboard.
1. Tall annual cereal grass bearing kernels on large ears: widely cultivated in America in many varieties; the principal cereal in Mexico and Central and South America since pre-Columbian times; SYN. maize, Indian corn, Zea mays.
2. Ears of corn grown for human food; SYN. edible corn.
3. The dried grains or kernels or corn used as animal feed or ground for meal.
4. A hard thickening of the skin (especially of the toes) caused by the pressure of ill-fitting shoes; SYN. clavus.

Town in Oklahoma (USA); zip code 73024.

1. To feed with corn, as of cattle.
2. To preserve with salt.