smurf

Meaning

Noun

1. A blue pixie with white stocking cap, from the media franchise The Smurfs.
2. A smurf account.
3. A smurf attack.
4. (slang) One member of a team, each of whom acquires a small amount of money or ingredients for manufacturing drugs, keeping the transactions too small in order to not raise suspicion.

Verb

1. (slang) Used to replace any other verb, as is typical of smurfs.
2. To split a large financial transaction into smaller ones so as to avoid scrutiny; to carry out structuring.
3. To carry out a smurf attack against someone.
4. To use a smurf account.
5. To use a smurf account.

Synonyms

cop

👮

police officer

👮

sinkhole

police

👮

Pronounced as (IPA)

/smɜːf/

Etymology

Borrowed from Dutch smurf (via the Belgian comic De Smurfen, a translation of French Les Schtroumpfs), from French schtroumpf, a word that was created by Peyo based on German Strumpf (literally “stocking, sock”), either simply because it sounds funny to the French ear or based on a regional German use for “idiot”. Armand van Raalte was an employee for the Belgian publisher of Peyo's stories who felt that schtroumpf would not have the same effect in Dutch, so he tried to find a simple word that could be used both as a noun and a verb. The result was smurf. In other languages, the term was similarly altered; compare the translations below.