Library / English Dictionary

SURF

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Waves breaking on the shore

Synonyms:

breaker; breakers; surf

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Hypernyms ("surf" is a kind of...):

moving ridge; wave (one of a series of ridges that moves across the surface of a liquid (especially across a large body of water))

Derivation:

surf (ride the waves of the sea with a surfboard)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Switch channels, on television

Synonyms:

channel-surf; surf

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Hypernyms (to "surf" is one way to...):

change; shift; switch (lay aside, abandon, or leave for another)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Sense 2

Meaning:

Look around casually and randomly, without seeking anything in particular

Example:

surf the internet or the world wide web

Synonyms:

browse; surf

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "surf" is one way to...):

look for; search; seek (try to locate or discover, or try to establish the existence of)

Verb group:

browse; shop (shop around; not necessarily buying)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s something

Sense 3

Meaning:

Ride the waves of the sea with a surfboard

Example:

Californians love to surf

Synonyms:

surf; surfboard

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Hypernyms (to "surf" is one way to...):

glide (move smoothly and effortlessly)

Domain category:

athletics; sport (an active diversion requiring physical exertion and competition)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "surf"):

windsurf (ride standing on a surfboard with an attached sail, on water)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s PP

Derivation:

surf (waves breaking on the shore)

surfer (someone who engages in surfboarding)

surfing (the sport of riding a surfboard toward the shore on the crest of a wave)

Credits

 Context examples: 

A heavy surf thundered and burst over an outjutting rock; lowering storm-clouds covered the sky; and, outside the line of surf, a pilot-schooner, close-hauled, heeled over till every detail of her deck was visible, was surging along against a stormy sunset sky.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

As we passed the point the whole cove burst upon our view, a half-moon of white sandy beach upon which broke a huge surf, and which was covered with myriads of seals.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

On stormy nights, when the wind shook the four corners of the house and the surf roared along the cove and up the cliffs, I would see him in a thousand forms, and with a thousand diabolical expressions.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

But it was not till the third day that we found them, all of them, the shears included, and, of all perilous places, in the pounding surf of the grim south-western promontory.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

I walked along beside the surf with great enjoyment, till, thinking I was now got far enough to the south, I took the cover of some thick bushes and crept warily up to the ridge of the spit.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

It partook of the magnitude and volume of distant thunder, and it came to us directly from leeward, rising above the crash of the surf and travelling directly in the teeth of the storm.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Soon cool draughts of air began to reach me, and a few steps farther I came forth into the open borders of the grove, and saw the sea lying blue and sunny to the horizon and the surf tumbling and tossing its foam along the beach.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

We were not far off the line the wind made with the western edge of the promontory, and I watched in the hope that some set of the current or send of the sea would drift us past before we reached the surf.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Perhaps it was this—perhaps it was the look of the island, with its grey, melancholy woods, and wild stone spires, and the surf that we could both see and hear foaming and thundering on the steep beach—at least, although the sun shone bright and hot, and the shore birds were fishing and crying all around us, and you would have thought anyone would have been glad to get to land after being so long at sea, my heart sank, as the saying is, into my boots; and from the first look onward, I hated the very thought of Treasure Island.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

Again I turned my face to leeward, and again I saw the jutting promontory, black and high and naked, the raging surf that broke about its base and beat its front high up with spouting fountains, the black and forbidden coast-line running toward the south-east and fringed with a tremendous scarf of white.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)