Noun

Singular surf

Plural uncountable

surf (uncountable)

1. Waves that break on an ocean shoreline.
   • 1883: Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island

     ...perhaps it was the look of the island, with its gray, melancholy woods, and wild stone spires, and the surf that we could both see and hear foaming and thundering on the steep beach...

   • 1900, Joseph Grinnell, Birds of the Kotzebue Sound Region, Alaska, page 12:

     It was alone, nervously alighting and flying short distances along the surf.

   • 1941, Raymond Russell Camp, Fishing the Surf, page 248:

     In most instances the inshore holes or pockets along the surf do not produce as well as the cuts or sloughs between sand bars.

   • 1963, Vlad Evanoff, Spin Fishing, page 181:

     Snook are found in rivers, canals, inlets and along the surf, especially around sand bars, tidal rips, jetties, bridges and piers.

Derived terms

• surf line
• surf rider noun

The wave activity in the area between the shoreline and outer limit of breakers. Surf may refer to:

• A breaking wave in shallow water or upon the shore, or the area in which waves break
• Surfing, a surfboard-based water-sport
• Surf culture, the culture surrounding the sport of surfing
• Surf music
• Surf (detergent)
• Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF)
• Atlantic City Surf Professional Baseball Club
• Jersey Surf Drum and Bugle Corps
• "Surfing the Web", i.e. exploring the World Wide Web
• surf (software), a computer visualization program for real algebraic geometry (surf.sourceforge.net)
• SURF "Speeded Up Robust Features", a computer vision algorithm
• Surf (album), a 2002 album released by Roddy Frame.
• Surf (Counter-Strike Gamemode)