surf

Meanings

Noun

• Waves that break on an ocean shoreline.
• An instance or session of riding a surfboard in the surf.
• The bottom of a drain.

Verb

• To ride a wave on a surfboard; to pursue or take part in the sport of surfing.
• To surf at a specified place.
• To bodysurf; to swim in the surf at a beach.
• To browse the Internet, television, etc.

Origin

• 1680s, perhaps from earlier suffe (c. 1590).
• Unknown, possibly related to sough, or possibly of Indic origin, as the word was formerly a reference to the coast of India.
• The verb is from 1917.