sb. Also 8 surff. [Continues SUFF sb. in chronology and meaning, but the relation between the forms is not clear. (Not in general Dicts. before Todd, 1818.)
Both suff and surf are used particularly in reference to the coast of India, a circumstance which makes a native origin for the words probable.]
1. The swell of the sea which breaks upon a shore, esp. a shallow shore. (In recent use usually with implication of sense 2.)
1685. W. Hedges, Diary (Hakl. Soc.), I. 182. [At Fort St. George, Madras] This unhappy accident, together with ye greatness of ye Sea and Surf ashore, caused us to come aboard again.
1719. De Foe, Crusoe, I. (Globe), 50. My Raft was now strong enough to bear any reasonable Weight; my next Care was … how to preserve what I laid upon it from the Surf of the Sea.
1745. P. Thomas, Jrnl. Anson’s Voy., 35. The Landing is bad by reason of pretty much Surf, and great Stones like Rocks.
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist. (1862), I. xvii. 97. This rising of the waves against the shore, is called by mariners the surf of the sea.
1783. W. Marsden, Hist. Sumatra (1811), 34. The surf (a word not to be found, I believe, in our dictionaries) is used in India, and by navigators in general, to express a peculiar swell and breaking of the sea upon the shore.
1836. W. Irving, Astoria, II. 100. Low bellowings … like the hoarse murmurs of the surf on a distant shore.
1840. E. E. Napier, Scenes & Sports For. Lands, I. p. xii. The progress of the neophyte … in that far land, from the moment when having crossed the ‘surf.’ [Note. An expression equivalent to entering or leaving India, as a person is never supposed to venture across this tremendous barrier of the Coromandel coast, unless on such momentous occasions.]
1886. Ruskin, Præterita, I. 379. Half-a-mile of dangerous surf between the ship and the shore.
1906. Max Pemberton, My Sword for Lafayette, xxiv. The distant thunder of the sea surf upon an angry shore.
b. with a. Also transf. (in first quot.).
1698. Fryer, Acc. E. India & P., 14. A notable Fish … It might be in length forty Feet … bolting out of the Water with a great Surf.
1748. Anson’s Voy., II. ii. 134. The wind … occasioned such a surf, that it was impossible for the boat to land.
1763. Thomson, Temple of Venus, i. 14. A dull promiscuous sound a-far … like … southern surffs upon an iron shore.
1803. Wittman, Trav. Turkey, 3. A military artificer was unfortunately washed off the vessel by a surf, and was immediately drowned.
1840. Macaulay, Ess., Clive, ¶ 8. Fort St. George had arisen on a barren spot beaten by a raging surf.
1879. A. R. Wallace’s Australasia, xvi. 303. The southern coast … is exposed to a heavy and dangerous surf, which rolls in upon the shore at all seasons.
2. The mass or line of white foamy water caused by the sea breaking upon a shore or a rock.
1757. trans. Keysler’s Trav., IV. 141, note. Salt … was not produced here as in other countries by a desiccation of the surf of the sea [trams. Tacitus, Ann., XIII. lvii. non ut alias apud gentis eluvie maris arescente unda].
1784. Cowper, Task, VI. 155. Light as the foamy surf That the wind severs from the broken wave.
1833. Tennyson, Dream Fair Wom., viii. White surf wind-scatter’d over sails and masts.
1882. ‘Ouida,’ Maremma, I. 78. She played with the sails, with the surf, and with the crystals of the salt.
b. transf. and fig.
1847. Longf., Ev., II. iii. 24. Just where the woodlands met the flowery surf of the prairie.
1873. Lowell, Above & Below, II. i. To behold The first long surf of climbing light Flood all the thirsty east with gold.
3. attrib. and Comb.: Simple attrib., ‘of or pertaining to surf,’ as surf barrier, -billow, rock, -sound, -thunder; locative, as surf-bather, -bathing, -fishing, -riding, -swimmer, -swimming; surf-sunk adj.; instrumental, as surf-battered, -beaten, -bound, -showered, -tormented, -vexed, -washed, -wasted, -worn adjs.; similative, as surf-white adj.; also surf-bird, a small plover-like bird, Aphriza virgata, found on the Pacific coast of America; surfboard, a long narrow board on which one rides over a heavy surf to shore; surf-boat, a boat specially constructed for passing through surf; hence surf-boatman = surfman; surf-clam, a large clam, esp. Mactra (or Spisula) solidissima, found on the Atlantic coast of the United States (Funk’s Standard Dict., 1895); surf-coot = surf-duck; surf-duck, a North American species of sea-duck of the genus Œdemia, esp. O. perspicillata, found sometimes in Great Britain; surf-fish, any one of the numerous species of the family Embiotocidæ, abundant on the coast of California; surf-man U.S., a member of the crew of a surf-boat; hence surfmanship; surf-perch = surf-fish; surf-scoter = surf-duck; surf-shiner, a small California fish, Cymatogaster aggregatus (Webster, 1911); surf-smelt, a species of smelt, Hypomesus olidus, found on the Pacific coast of the United States; surf-whiting, the silver whiting, Menticirrus littoralis.
1893. Kate Sanborn, A Truthful Woman S. California, 162–3. *Surf bathers go in every month of the year.
1884. Encycl. Brit., XVII. 461/1. Conveniences for *surf-bathing.
1902. Temple Bar, May, 579. Like *surf-battered swimmers.
1801. Campbell, Lochiel’s Warning, 82. Like ocean-weeds heaped on the *surf-beaten shore.
1890. ‘R. Boldrewood,’ Col. Reformer (1891), 154. The deep-toned ceaseless roll of the *surf-billows.
1872. Coues, N. Amer. Birds, 245. Aphriza, *Surf Bird.
1822. Missionary Herald, 242/2, heading. The *Surf-board and the manner it is used.
c. 1826. Richards, in Gosse, Ocean, vi. (1849), 285. Those who were standing on the beach saw the surf-board … floating on the water.
1856. Dickens, Wreck Golden Mary (1898), 22. I gave … the word to lower the Long-boat and the *Surf-boat.
1883. J. D. Campbell, Fisheries China, 5 (Fish. Exhib. Publ.). The catamarans or surf-boats of South Formosa.
1886. Encycl. Brit., XXI. 804/2. The Madras surf boats.
1880. Scribner’s Mag., XIX. Jan., 323/1. It is an erroneous notion that the experience of the sailor qualifies him for a *surf-boatman.
1884. G. Y. Lagden, in 19th Cent., Feb., 239. Nor is it less tempting to flee from the noisy tumult of a *surf-bound shore.
1885. Seebohm, Brit. Birds, III. 610. To the hunters on Long Island it [the Surf-scoter] is known as the ‘Spectacled Coot’ and *‘Surf-Coot.’
1808–13. A. Wilson & Bonaparte, Amer. Ornith. (1832), III. 70. Black, or *Surf Duck, Anas perspicillata.… This duck is peculiar to America, and … confined to the shores and bays of the sea.
1882. Jordan & Gilbert, Fishes N. Amer., 585. Embiotocidæ. The *Surf-fishes…. Fishes of the Pacific coast of North America, inhabiting bays and the surf on sandy beaches.
1880. Scribner’s Mag., 322/2. The keeper [of the surf-boat] commands the crew of six *surfmen. Ibid., 334. Until 1871 … *surfmanship was not a standard of qualification.
1889. Amer. Naturalist, Oct., 923. Micrometrus aggregatus, one of the viviparous *surf-perches.
1898. Jean A. Owen, Hawaii, iii. 81. *Surf-riding on boards is still much practised.
1800. Coleridge, Piccolom., I. xii. The *surf-rocks of the Baltic.
1835. Jenyns, Man. Brit. Vertebr. Anim., 240. O[idemia] perspicillata. Steph. (*Surf Scoter.)
1882. Jordan & Gilbert, Fishes N. Amer., 294. Hypomesus, Gill. *Surf Smelts…. H[ypomesus] pretiosus…. Surf Smelt…. Pacific coast, from California northward; abundant, spawning in the surf.
1828. Campbell, Death-boat Heligoland, 22. Now *surf-sunk for minutes, again they uptossed.
1845. Gosse, Ocean, vi. (1849), 283. The cry of ‘A Shark!’ among the *surf swimmers will instantly set them in the utmost terror.
1890. ‘R. Boldrewood,’ Col. Reformer (1891), 150. The wind is … from the south, we shall have the *surf-thunder in perfection.
1829. Poe, Dream within a Dream, ii. I stand amid the roar Of a *surf-tormented shore.
1852. Mundy, Antipodes (1857), 24. Green turfy knolls sloping abruptly to the *surf-vexed beach.
1861. L. L. Noble, Icebergs, 180. The bleak, *surf-washed rocks.
1854. H. Miller, Sch. & Schm., xxiv. (1858), 532. The picturesque *surf-wasted stacks of the granitic wall of rock.
1897. Mary Kingsley, W. Africa, 391. The young women … with their soft dusky skins,… pretty brown eyes, and *surf-white teeth.
1882. Jordan & Gilbert, Fishes N. Amer., 933. M[enticirrus] littoralis…. *Surf Whiting…. South Atlantic and Gulf coast.
1878. Geikie, Geol. Sketches, ii. (1882), 34. Weather-beaten or *surf-worn sheets of rock.
Hence Surf v. intr. rare, to form surf.
1831. J. Wilson, in Blackw. Mag., XXIX. 141. The breakers surfing on a lee-shore. Ibid. (1832), XXXII. 131.
