Also 6–7 sourge. [Partly f. OF. sourge- (see prec.), or a. early mod.F. sorgir (F. surgir), = Pr. sorzer, sorgir, It. sorgere, Sp., Pg. surgir, ad. L. surgĕre to rise; partly f. SURGE sb.]
1. intr. To rise and fall or toss on the waves; to ride (at anchor, or along over the waves). † In earliest use, ? to come to anchor; cf. F. surgir, to come to land.
1511. Guylforde’s Pilgr. (Camden), 71. The same Tewsdaye at nyghte late we surged in ye Rode.
1585. T. Washington, trans. Nicholay’s Voy., I. vii. 7. By force of oares we came surging along … beyond the cape of Matafus.
1588. Greene, Pandosto (1607), 13. Since thou must goe to surge in the gastfull waues.
1611. Admiralty Crt. Exam., 8 June, 41. The … lighter … made faste to the shippe surging at an anker in the Thames.
1850. B. Taylor, Eldorado, i. (1862), 2. The mass of spars and rigging drifted at her side, surging drearily on the heavy sea.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., s.v., A ship is said to surge on a reef when she rises and falls with the heave of the sea, so as to strike heavily.
† b. pass. ? To be cast up by the surge. Obs.
1581. T. Howell, Deuises, F iiij b. Twixte death and doubt, still surgde vpon the sande, Stayde vp by hope to light on fyrmer lande.
† 2. To rise, spring, issue, as a stream from its source, or from underground. Obs.
1549. Thomas, Hist. Italie, 27. It [sc. the Fontana da Trevi] sourgeth vnder the hille called Monte degli hortuli.
1632. Lithgow, Trav., IX. 403. The Sulphatara … after an excessiue raine surgeth sixe foote high with blacke boyling water.
a. 1661. Fuller, Worthies, Surrey (1662), III. 79. A River … which at a place called the Swallow, sinketh unto the Earth and surgeth again some two miles off nigh Letherhead. Ibid., Warwick., 125. The river Anas in Spain,… having run many miles under ground, surgeth a greater channell then before.
† b. gen. To rise, ascend, mount. Obs. rare.
a. 1591. H. Smith, Wks. (1867), II. 480. Till lust, as lighter, up doth surge.
1665. Sir T. Herbert, Trav. (1677), 196. The Mountains Imaus, which towards the North surge more and more to an incomprehensible height.
3. To rise in great waves or billows, as the sea; to swell or heave with great force, as a large wave; to move tempestuously.
1566. [see SURGING ppl. a.]
1570. Levins, Manip., 224/25. To sourge, fluctuare.
1586. Ferne, Blaz. Gentrie, 298. The waues of the sea … either surged tempestuouslye or calmed quietlye according to his pleasure.
1851. ‘Wrangler’ (J. B. Hume), Poems early Years, Diver, vi. It [sc. the abyss] seethes and it surges and hisses and raves, As when water by fire is cross’d.
1862. M. Hopkins, Hawaii, 12. Giddy precipices … against whose walls the waves beat, and surge.
1865. Kingsley, Herew., vi. The sea boiled past them, surged into the waist, blinded them with spray.
1869. Phillips, Vesuv., iv. 115. The lava surged, not flowed, over, as angry waves do over a sandy bar.
b. transf. of a crowd of people, a wind, etc.
In Physics, to vary or oscillate suddenly or violently, as a pressure or an electric current.
1845. Hirst, Coming of Mammoth, etc., 14. Their forms had gone O’er the far forests, surging on.
1853. Kingsley, Hypatia, xxvi. The mob pressed onward from behind, surged up almost to the barrier.
1859. Dickens, T. Two Cities, II. i. He … began to roll and surge in bed.
1860. Tyndall, Glac., I. xvi. 115. The wind surging with the full deep boom of the distant sea against the precipice.
a. 1862. Buckle, Civiliz. (1864), II. v. 409. To hear of such things is enough to make one’s blood surge again.
1887. Abercromby, Weather, v. 166. Sometimes filling up of a cyclone is tolerably local; other times surging is on an enormous scale.
1891. Conan Doyle, White Company, xxxv. From below there surged up the buzz of voices.
1894. Ld. Wolseley, Life Marlborough, I. 4. The civil wars, which about 1642, began to surge westward into Somerset and Devon.
c. fig., chiefly surge up, of feelings, thoughts, etc.
1853. C. Brontë, Villette, x. Something … that brought surging up into the mind all one’s foibles and weak points.
1877. Mrs. Oliphant, Makers Flor., xv. 375. All the enthusiasm of old surged up to answer this appeal.
1883. Emile de Laveleye, in Contemp. Rev., June, 768. We see … what rival claims and pretensions have already surged up.
1908. R. Bagot, A. Cuthbert, xxiii. 309. Her mind was working rapidly, and, indeed, she was scarcely able to disentangle ideas which surged through it.
4. trans. To cause to move in, or as in, swelling waves or billows; to drive with waves.
1607. Walkington, Optic Glass, iv. (1664), 50. Wine … calms the roughest tempest of whatsoever more vehement Imagination sourgeth in any man.
1862. Thornbury, Turner, I. 313. The … monster … hurls rocks at the departing vessel that … surge it back again towards the shore.
1873. Lowell, Parable, ‘Said Christ Our Lord,’ iv. Great organs surged through arches dim Their jubilant floods in praise of Him.
5. Naut., etc. a. intr. To slip back accidentally, as a rope or chain round a capstan, windlass, etc.; to slip round without moving onwards, as a wheel.
a. 1625. Nomenclator Navalis (Harl. MS. 2301), 139. When they heave at the Capstaine and the Caboll slips back againe they say the Cabell surges.
1627. Capt. J. Smith, Sea Gram., ix. 44. If it [sc. the cable] be … slimie with ose, it surges or slips backe vnlesse they keep it close to the whelps.
1840. R. H. Dana, Bef. Mast, xxiv. The chain surged so as almost to unship the barrel of the windlass.
1862. Nares, Seamanship, 87. Surging, the hawser slipping up the barrel of a capstan, or veering out the cable suddenly.
1882. Hedley, Inventor Railw. Locomotion, 59. It had been always thought that engine-wheels on a smooth surface would ‘surge’ or slip round without advancing.
b. trans. To let go or slacken suddenly (a rope wound round a capstan, etc.); also with the capstan, etc., as obj. Also absol.
1769. Falconer, Dict. Marine (1780), Choquer la tournevire, to surge the capstern. Ibid., Dévirer le cable, to surge the cable about the capstern or windlass, in order to prevent it from riding, with one part over another.
1850. Scoresby, Cheever’s Whalem. Adv., ix. (1858), 120. The line would be ‘surged,’ or slacked out.
1853. in Kane, Arctic Expl. (1856), I. vii. 70. It’s blowing the devil himself, and I am afraid to surge.
1862. Nares, Seamanship, 146. Secure the hawser for surging the topmast to start the crosstrees off the mast-head.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., Surge Ho!, the notice given when a rope or cable is to be surged.
c. intr. Of a ship: To sweep, pull or jerk in a certain direction. Also transf.
1839. Darwin, Voy. Nat., x. (1852), 212. Every now and then, a puff from the mountains, which made the ship surge at her anchors.
1849. Cupples, Green Hand, xiv. (1856), 144. Jove! how she [the ship] surged to it.
1856. Kane, Arctic Expl., I. xxvi. 338. The brig surged and righted.
1895. Henley C. Booth, in Outing (U.S.), XXVI. 358/1. The fish surges and the rod bends alarmingly.
