surf

Meaning

Noun

1. (countable, uncountable) Waves that break on an ocean shoreline.
2. (countable, uncountable) An instance or session of riding a surfboard in the surf.
3. (countable, uncountable) A dance popular in the 1960s in which the movements of a surfboard rider are mimicked.
4. (UK, countable, dialectal, uncountable) The bottom of a drain.

Verb

1. To ride a wave on a surfboard; to pursue or take part in the sport of surfing.
2. To surf at a specified place.
3. To bodysurf; to swim in the surf at a beach.
4. (ambitransitive) To browse the Internet, television, etc.

Synonyms

breakers

wave

👋

breaker

browse

waves

surfboard

surge

channel-surf

navigate

aquaplane

seawater

spindrift

swell

windsurf

large wave

surf the net

surf-ride

rough water

sea waves

billow

bore

bow-wave

chop

choppiness

ripple

roller

roughness

saltwater

Translations

surfer

surfen

Brandung

surfen

navigare

surfare

surfar

ressac

naviguer

frangente

oleaje

fare surf

risacca

surf

branding

Pronounced as (IPA)

/sɜːf/

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.