Dictionary

surfy en · ADJ

Etymology

From surf + -y.

Meanings

1. of a shore, having lots of breaking waves
   • 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. 1904, William Morris, The Story of Sigurd the Volsung and the Fall of the Niblungs:
2. characteristic of surf music
   • All this is set to a driving backdrop of hard, slightly surfy, surprisingly powerful strumming. 1993 September 3, Chris Dickinson, “Singers to watch”, in Chicago Reader:
   • They do a kind of surfy version of New Order, bright and clattery, a minimalist collision of the 1950s and the 1980s. 2009 August 30, Ben Ratliff, “Chanting, Jazzy, Beachy, Funky, Lonely Sounds”, in New York Times:

Forms