English

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Etymology

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From surf +‎ -y.

Adjective

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surfy (comparative surfier, superlative surfiest)

  1. of a shore, having lots of breaking waves
    • 1904, William Morris, The Story of Sigurd the Volsung and the Fall of the Niblungs[1]:
      Now again in the latter summer do those Kings of the Niblungs ride To chase the sons of the plunder that curse the ocean-side: So over the oaken rollers they run the cutters down Till fair in the first of the deep are the glittering bows up-thrown; But, shining wet and steel-clad, men leap from the surfy shore, And hang their shields on the gunwale, and cast abroad the oar; Then full to the outer ocean swing round the golden beaks, And Sigurd sits by the tiller and the host of the spoilers seeks.
  2. characteristic of surf music
    • 1993 September 3, Chris Dickinson, “Singers to watch”, in Chicago Reader[2]:
      All this is set to a driving backdrop of hard, slightly surfy, surprisingly powerful strumming.
    • 2009 August 30, Ben Ratliff, “Chanting, Jazzy, Beachy, Funky, Lonely Sounds”, in New York Times[3]:
      They do a kind of surfy version of New Order, bright and clattery, a minimalist collision of the 1950s and the 1980s.