Forms: 5–7 sourge, (6 sowrge, shourge, pl. surgies, 7 surdge, syrge), 6– surge. [Of obscure origin. In the earliest examples (sense 1 a, b) transl. OF. sourgeon (mod.F. surgeon), f. sourge-, pres. stem of sourdre:—L. surgĕre to rise. In senses 3, 4 f. SURGE v.]
† 1. a. A fountain, stream. Obs.
1490. Caxton, Eneydos, iv. 18. The whiche trees, soo cutte … yssued oute … a sourge [orig. vne sourgon] of blacke bloode droppynge doun to the erthe. Ibid., vi. 26. [Her eyes] seemed two grete sourges [orig. sourions] wellynge vp grete affluence of teerys.
1538. Elyot, Scatebræ, the bollynge or rysynge vppe of water out of a spryng or sourges of water.
1567. Turberv., Epit., etc., Louer to his carefull Bed, 24. Thus with a surge of teares bedewde (O bed) I thee forsake.
b. The source of a river or other water. Also fig. Obs.
1523. Ld. Berners, Froiss., I. i. 1. All great ryuers are … assemblede of diuers surges [orig. surgeons] and sprynges of water.
1587. Harrison, England, I. xi. in Holinshed, I. 48/1. Charwell … issueth so fast at the verie surge, that it groweth into a pretie streame, in maner out of hand. Ibid., II. xxi. 211/1. Yet is the surge of that water alwaies seuen foot from the salt sea.
1588. Allen, Admon., 4. The nexte immediate surge of our sores.
2. A high rolling swell of water, esp. on the sea; a large, heavy, or violent wave; a billow.
In this use and in b, c, and d chiefly poetic or rhetorical.
1530. Palsgr., 278/2. Surge of the see, uague.
1533. Elyot, Cast. Helthe, II. xiv. (1539), 31 b. The beste fyshe … is tossed and lyfte vp with wyndes and sourges.
1555. Eden, Decades (Arb.), 277. Thesea was … vnquieted with surgies and monsters.
1558. Bp. Watson, Seven Sacram., xiv. 87. To haue a mans shyppe drowned at once wyth one greate sourge and waue of the sea.
1625. N. Carpenter, Geogr. Delin., II. ii. (1635), 20. The Sea is euerywhere plaine and like it selfe, except the rising of the waues and surges.
1673. Dryden, Marr. à la Mode, II. i. As open to the gusts of passion, As the bare shore to every beating surge.
1726–46. Thomson, Winter, 162. The mountain-billows … surge above surge, Burst into chaos with tremendous roar.
1840. R. H. Dana, Bef. Mast, xxv. All this time the sea was rolling in immense surges.
1861. Tennyson, Sailor Boy, 9. The sands and yeasty surges mix In caves about the dreary bay.
1885. Athenæum, 23 May, 669/3. A noble sea view … where grand surges move in ranks … till they beat furiously on the shore.
b. Such waves or billows collectively; the rising or driving swell of the sea.
1567. Turberv., Epit., etc., To the rayling Rout of Sycophants, 7. Such as earst in cutting of the Surge … Bode bitter blast and scornefull Neptunes scurge.
1624. Capt. J. Smith, Virginia, I. 2. The very surge of the Sea sometimes overflowed them.
1702. Lond. Gaz., No. 3845/2. Some Boats were overset by the Surge of the Sea, it blowing then very fresh.
1749. Smollett, Regicide, IV. iii. Thy specious words Shall sooner lull the sounding surge.
1771. Franklin, Autobiog., Wks. 1840, I. 30. It was in a place where there could be no landing, there being a great surge on the beach.
1855. Kingsley, Westw. Ho! vi. Laced with white foam from the eternal surge.
1871. Tyndall, Fragm. Sci. (1879), I. vii. 238. As we were just clearing the rock, the bow came obliquely to the surge.
c. fig. (or, more freq., in fig. context) in reference to feelings, influences, actions, events, etc.: Impetuous onset or agitated movement.
1520. Whitinton, Vulg. (1527), 21. He is moost moderate and studyous to auoyde surges of his passyon.
1540. Morysine, Vives’ Introd. Wysd., Pref. A v. Men assauted with the surges of sower fortune.
1602. Marston, Antonio’s Rev., IV. ii. They have opened all his rotten parts Unto the vaunting surge of base contempt.
1834. H. Miller, Scenes & Leg., v. (1857), 55. The observances of the old system were effaced … by the hasty surges of popular resentment.
1890. Spectator, 29 March, 435/2. No surge of public opinion would have saved them from the gallows.
1534. More, Comf. agst. Trib., I. Wks. 1140/1. To … strength the walles of our heartes agaynst the gret sourges of this tempesteous sea.
1550. Bale, Engl. Votaries, II. K viij. Peters litle ship … was very like … to be ouer rowne & drouned, the shourges of scismatikes & of heretikes wer so great.
1583. H. Howard, Defensative, R ij. Sometyme floting in the surges of mishap.
1682. Tate, Abs. & Achit., II. 1132. This year did Ziloah Rule Jerusalem, And boldly all Sedition’s Syrges stem.
1807. Byron, Hours Idleness, Medea of Euripides, i. What mind can stem the stormy surge Which rolls the tide of human woe?
1841–4. Emerson, Ess., Over-Soul, Wks. (Bohn), I. 117. It is an ebb of the individual rivulet before the flowing surges of the sea of life.
d. transf. in reference to various physical things, as fire, wind, sound; also to ‘rolling’ or undulating hills or the like.
In Physics, a sudden or irregular change of pressure; a sudden or violent oscillation of electric current.
1667. Milton, P. L., I. 173. The fiery Surge, that from the Precipice Of Heav’n receiv’d us falling.
1810. Southey, Kehama, XXIII. x. The smoke and vapours of all Padalon … were spread, With surge and swell, and everlasting motion.
1863. J. R. Green, Lett., II. (1901), 117. On the low surge of hills that close the horizon, is the house of Mary Chaworth, his [Byron’s] love.
1865. Baring-Gould, Were-wolves, xiii. 233. The surge of the old Gregorian tone.
1869. Lowell, Cathedral, 69. The surges of the warm southwest.
1887. Abercromby, Weather, v. 167. When we look at a series of these surges [of atmospheric pressure] we find a decided tendency of the motion to travel from west to east, or from south-west to north-east.
1908. Times, 5 Oct., 12/6. The ‘surge’ of the high-tension current caused some control switches to fuse.
3. Naut., etc. The slipping back of a rope or chain wound round a capstan, etc.; more generally, a sudden jerk or strain.
1748. Anson’s Voy., II. i. 112. With our utmost efforts, and with many surges and some purchases we made use of to encrease our power.
1805. A. Duncan, Mariner’s Chron., IV. 109. At eleven o’clock, a fatal swell gave the ship a sudden shock: she gave a surge, and sunk almost instantaneously.
1849. Cupples, Green Hand, viii. (1856), 76. Till the ‘cleets’ brought him up with a ‘surge’ fit to have parted the line.
1860. Merc. Marine Mag., VII. 180. They might have seen or heard a surge of the cable.
1869. Rankine, Machine & Hand-tools, Pl. O 2. Jerks or surges are entirely avoided.
4. Naut. The part of a capstan or windlass upon which the rope surges.
1664. E. Bushnell, Compl. Shipwright, 67. A … Windless, with a Surdge in the middle, as is the Surdge of a Crab, or Capstane.
c. 1850. Rudim. Navig. (Weale), 154. Surge, the tapered part of the whelps, between the chocks of the capstan, upon which … the messenger may surge itself without any incumbrance.
5. attrib. and Comb., as surge-crest, -voice; surge-beat(en adj.
1852. M. Arnold, Tristram & Iseult, I. 104. The *surge-beat Cornish strand.
a. 1810. Shelley, M. Nicholson’s Fragm., Ravaillac, 16. The *surge-beaten mould.
1839–52. Bailey, Festus, 91. In vain they urge their armies to the fight: Their *surge-crests crumble ’neath our stroke of might.
1890. ‘R. Boldrewood,’ Miner’s Right (1899), 163/2. The whispering *surge-voices.
