Surf
Pronunciation
- UK IPA: /sÉœË(ɹ)f/
- Rhymes: -ÉœË(ɹ)f
- Homophones: serf in accents with the w, English-language vowel changes before historic r#Fern-fir-fur_merger, fern-fir-fur merger
Origin
Uncertain origin. Formerly written as suffe. Possibly related to sough, or possibly of origin, as the word was formerly a reference to the coast of India.
Full definition of surf
Noun
surf
(uncountable)- Waves that break on an ocean shoreline.
- 1883, Robert Louis Stevenson, ...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. Meade Falkner, Moonfleet Chapter 5'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, It was alone, nervously alighting and flying short distances along the surf.
- 1941, Raymond Russell Camp, Fishing the Surf, 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, Snook are found in rivers, canals, inlets and along the surf, especially around sand bars, tidal rips, jetties, bridges and piers.
- (UK, dialect) The bottom of a drain.
Derived terms
- surf line
- surf rider noun
Derived terms
- surfer noun
Derived terms
- (ride a wave) surfer, surfing, surfboard
- (browse the Internet) silver surfer