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surf

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English

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Etymology

    Probably from earlier suff, suffe (“the inrush of the sea towards the shore”), possibly from Middle English suffe. Compare sough, surf (“a gutter, drain, sewer, trench”) and sough (“a soothing, gentle, murmuring sound of wind or water”). Alternatively, possibly of Indo-Aryan origin, as the word was formerly a reference to the coast of India, though this is doubtful as no positive etymon can be identified. The verb is from 1917. The verb referring to "browsing the Internet" was popularized by Jean Armour Polly.

    Pronunciation

    Noun

    surf (countable and uncountable, plural surfs)

    1. 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, page 12:
        It was alone, nervously alighting and flying short distances along the surf.
      • 1941, Raymond Russell Camp, Fishing the Surf‎, 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, page 181:
        Snook are found in rivers, canals, inlets and along the surf, especially around sand bars, tidal rips, jetties, bridges and piers.
    2. An instance or session of riding a surfboard in the surf.
      We went for a surf this morning.
    3. 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.
    4. (UK, dialect) The bottom of a drain.

    Derived terms

    Translations

    Verb

    surf (third-person singular simple present surfs, present participle surfing, simple past and past participle surfed)

    1. To ride a wave on a surfboard; to pursue or take part in the sport of surfing.
    2. To surf at a specified place.
    3. 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.
    4. (ambitransitive) To browse the Internet, television, etc.

    Derived terms

    Translations

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    Dutch

    Pronunciation

    Verb

    surf

    1. inflection of surfen:
      1. first-person singular present indicative
      2. (in case of inversion) second-person singular present indicative
      3. imperative

    French

    Noun

    surf m (uncountable)

    1. surfing

    Derived terms

    Further reading

    Italian

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    Romanian

    Spanish

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