surf
Plural: surfs
Noun
- waves breaking on the shore
- Waves that break on an ocean shoreline.
- An instance or session of riding a surfboard in the surf.
- A dance popular in the 1960s in which the movements of a surfboard rider are mimicked.
- The bottom of a drain.
Verb
Verb Forms: surfed, surfing, surfs
- To ride breaking waves on a board; to browse the internet.
- ride the waves of the sea with a surfboard
- "Californians love to surf"
- look around casually and randomly, without seeking anything in particular
- "surf the internet or the world wide web"
- switch channels, on television
- 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.
- To browse the Internet, television, etc.
Examples
- He decided to surf for valid two-letter words between turns in Words With Friends.
- We went for a surf this morning.
Origin / 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.
Scrabble Score: 7
surf: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Wordsurf: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
surf: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary