Surf Meaning
/sɜːf/Definition, CEFR level B1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
nounWaves that break on an ocean shoreline.
nounAn instance or session of riding a surfboard in the surf.
Sentence Examples
Has anyone attempted to "surf" the Internet since 1998?
We should go surf sometime!
When you surf the web, you may be tracked by websites.
CEFR Practice Quiz
He likes to ____ the internet for interesting news.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
They spent the whole morning at the beach watching the huge waves ____ and crash onto the sandy shore today.
Word Origin & History
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.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"[…] 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 […]"
— 1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island, London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, →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."
— [1898], J[ohn] Meade Falkner, Moonfleet, London; Toronto, Ont.: Jonathan Cape, published 1934, →OCLC:
"It was alone, nervously alighting and flying short distances along the surf."
— 1900, Joseph Grinnell, Birds of the Kotzebue Sound Region, Alaska, page 12:
"In most instances the inshore holes or pockets along the surf do not produce as well as the cuts or sloughs between sand bars."
— 1941, Raymond Russell Camp, Fishing the Surf, page 248:
"Snook are found in rivers, canals, inlets and along the surf, especially around sand bars, tidal rips, jetties, bridges and piers."
— 1963, Vlad Evanoff, Spin Fishing, page 181:
Explore More B1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
He likes to ____ the internet for interesting news.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
They spent the whole morning at the beach watching the huge waves ____ and crash onto the sandy shore today.