surf
English
editEtymology
edit1680s, perhaps from earlier suffe (c. 1590), possibly related to sough, or possibly of Indo-Aryan origin, as the word was formerly a reference to the coast of India. The verb is from 1917. The verb referring to "browsing the Internet" was popularized by Jean Armour Polly.
Pronunciation
edit- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /sɜːf/
Audio (Southern England): (file) - (General American) IPA(key): /sɝf/
Audio (US): (file) - Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)f
- Homophone: serf (fern–fir–fur merger)
Noun
editsurf (countable and uncountable, plural surfs)
- Waves that break on an ocean shoreline.
- 1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island, London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, →OCLC:
- […] perhaps it was the look of the island, with its gray, melancholy woods, and wild stone spires, and the surf that we could both see and hear foaming and thundering on the steep beach […]
- [1898], J[ohn] Meade Falkner, Moonfleet, London; Toronto, Ont.: Jonathan Cape, published 1934, →OCLC:
- 'But when the surf fell enough for the boats to get ashore, and Greening held a lantern for me to jump down into the passage, after we had got the side out of the tomb, the first thing the light fell on at the bottom was a white face turned skyward.
- 1900, Joseph Grinnell, Birds of the Kotzebue Sound Region, Alaska[1], page 12:
- It was alone, nervously alighting and flying short distances along the surf.
- 1941, Raymond Russell Camp, Fishing the Surf[2], page 248:
- In most instances the inshore holes or pockets along the surf do not produce as well as the cuts or sloughs between sand bars.
- 1963, Vlad Evanoff, Spin Fishing[3], page 181:
- Snook are found in rivers, canals, inlets and along the surf, especially around sand bars, tidal rips, jetties, bridges and piers.
- An instance or session of riding a surfboard in the surf.
- We went for a surf this morning.
- A dance popular in the 1960s in which the movements of a surfboard rider are mimicked.
- 1964 July 15, The Australian, Sydney, page 20, column 3:
- She [...] loves to cook, sew and dance. She's up on all the latest steps like the frug, the hully-gully and the surf.
- (UK, dialect) The bottom of a drain.
Derived terms
editTranslations
editwaves that break
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Verb
editsurf (third-person singular simple present surfs, present participle surfing, simple past and past participle surfed)
- To ride a wave on a surfboard; to pursue or take part in the sport of surfing.
- To surf at a specified place.
- To bodysurf; to swim in the surf at a beach.
- 1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 90:
- Such diversion as Podson could extort from his isolation was soon vitiated by repetition. He surfed. He sun-baked - with discretion till his skin had peeled and given him a harder cuticle.
- (transitive, intransitive) To browse the Internet, television, etc.
Derived terms
edit- bed surf
- (browse the Internet): channel-surf, counter surf, cybersurf, netsurf, silver surfer, shoulder surf
- couch surf
- (ride a wave): surfer, surfing, surfboard; crowdsurf, train-surf, bodysurf, countersurf, parasurf, shoulder surf
- side surf
- sofa surf
- surf and turf
- surf cast
- surfer (noun)
Translations
editto ride a wave
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to browse the Internet
|
Anagrams
editFrench
editNoun
editsurf m (uncountable)
Derived terms
editRelated terms
editFurther reading
edit- “surf”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Italian
editEtymology
editUnadapted borrowing from English surf.
Pronunciation
editNoun
editsurf m (invariable)
Derived terms
editReferences
edit- ^ surf in Luciano Canepari, Dizionario di Pronuncia Italiana (DiPI)
Portuguese
editAlternative forms
editEtymology
editUnadapted borrowing from English surf.
Pronunciation
edit
Noun
editsurf m (uncountable)
Romanian
editEtymology
editUnadapted borrowing from English surf.
Noun
editsurf n (uncountable)
Declension
editSpanish
editEtymology
editPronunciation
editNoun
editsurf m (uncountable)
Derived terms
editFurther reading
edit- “surf”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2024 December 10
Categories:
- English terms derived from Indo-Aryan languages
- English 1-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio pronunciation
- Rhymes:English/ɜː(ɹ)f
- Rhymes:English/ɜː(ɹ)f/1 syllable
- English terms with homophones
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English uncountable nouns
- English countable nouns
- English terms with quotations
- English terms with usage examples
- British English
- English dialectal terms
- English verbs
- English transitive verbs
- English intransitive verbs
- en:Dances
- en:Surfing
- French lemmas
- French nouns
- French uncountable nouns
- French masculine nouns
- fr:Surfing
- Italian terms borrowed from English
- Italian unadapted borrowings from English
- Italian terms derived from English
- Italian 1-syllable words
- Italian terms with IPA pronunciation
- Rhymes:Italian/ɛrf
- Rhymes:Italian/ɛrf/1 syllable
- Italian lemmas
- Italian nouns
- Italian indeclinable nouns
- Italian countable nouns
- Italian masculine nouns
- it:Sports
- it:Surfing
- Portuguese terms borrowed from English
- Portuguese unadapted borrowings from English
- Portuguese terms derived from English
- Portuguese 2-syllable words
- Portuguese terms with IPA pronunciation
- Portuguese lemmas
- Portuguese nouns
- Portuguese uncountable nouns
- Portuguese masculine nouns
- pt:Sports
- pt:Surfing
- Romanian terms borrowed from English
- Romanian unadapted borrowings from English
- Romanian terms derived from English
- Romanian lemmas
- Romanian nouns
- Romanian uncountable nouns
- Romanian neuter nouns
- Spanish terms borrowed from English
- Spanish terms derived from English
- Spanish 1-syllable words
- Spanish terms with IPA pronunciation
- Rhymes:Spanish/uɾf
- Rhymes:Spanish/uɾf/1 syllable
- Rhymes:Spanish/oɾf
- Rhymes:Spanish/oɾf/1 syllable
- Spanish lemmas
- Spanish nouns
- Spanish uncountable nouns
- Spanish masculine nouns
- es:Surfing