surf
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Written by a house AI from the entry below, in your language. The entry itself is the source.
surf¹
- /sɜːf/ Australia, UK
- /sɝf/ US
- /sʌɹf/ Scotland
- /søːf/ New Zealand, Wales
- /seːf/
- /sɛːf/
Sounds like serf (fern–fir–fur merger) · Rhymes with -ɜː(ɹ)f
Where it comes from
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.
noun surfs
- Waves that break on an ocean shoreline. […] 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 […]
- 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. She [...] loves to cook, sew and dance. She's up on all the latest steps like the frug, the hully-gully and the surf.
- The bottom of a drain.
verb surfs · surfing · 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. 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.
- To browse the Internet, television, etc.
SURF²
proper noun
- Initialism of speeded up robust features
Thesaurus
Closest in meaning: windsurf, breaker, channel-surf, breakers, surfboard, snowboard, ski, sailing, sail, ride, navigate, navigation, board, wave, watch, water
Translations
Every language
noun waves that break
| Español | marea, oleaje |
|---|---|
| Português | rebentação |
| Français | brisants |
| Deutsch | Brandung |
| Italiano | frangenti, flutti |
| Русский | прибо́й pribój |
| Tiếng Việt | cuộc lướt sóng |
Talk about this word "surf." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/surf. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. surf. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/surf "surf." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/surf.Cite this
@misc{surf_2026,
title = {surf},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/surf},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
