different between froth vs surf

English

Etymology

From Middle English froth, frooth, froþ, likely a borrowing from Old Norse froða, from Proto-Germanic *fruþ?; Old English ?fr?oþan (“to foam, froth”) is from same Germanic root. Verb attested from late 14th century.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /f???/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /f???/
• (cot–caught merger, Canada) IPA^(key): /f???/
• Rhymes: -??, Rhymes: -???

Noun

froth (countable and uncountable, plural froths)

1. foam

2. (figuratively) unimportant events or actions; drivel

   Thousands of African children die each day: why do the newspapers continue to discuss unnecessary showbiz froth?

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

froth (third-person singular simple present froths, present participle frothing, simple past and past participle frothed)

1. (transitive) To create froth in (a liquid).
   • 1859, Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities, Book Two, Chapter 7, [1]

     One lacquey carried the chocolate-pot into the sacred presence; a second, milled and frothed the chocolate with the little instrument he bore for that function; a third, presented the favoured napkin; a fourth (he of the two gold watches), poured the chocolate out.

   I like to froth my coffee for ten seconds exactly.

2. (intransitive) (of a liquid) To bubble.
   • 1842, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “The Wreck of the Hesperus,” lines 21-4, [2]

     Colder and louder blew the wind,

     A gale from the Northeast,

     The snow fell hissing in the brine,

     And the billows frothed like yeast.

   • 1973, “Black Day in Brussels,” Time, 19 February, 1973, [3]

     English beer, along with European brews, is already the subject of an EEC investigation to determine whether additives like stabilizers (used to prevent frothing during shipment) should be allowed.

3. (transitive) To spit, vent, or eject, as froth.
   • 1690, John Dryden, Don Sebastian, a Tragedy, Act I, Scene 1, [4]

     The Mufti reddens; mark that holy cheek.

     He frets within, froths treason at his mouth,

     And churns it thro’ his teeth […]

   • 1859, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, “Merlin and Vivien” in Idylls of the King, [5]

     […] is your spleen frothed out, or have ye more?

4. (intransitive) (literally) To spew saliva as froth; (figuratively) to rage, vent one's anger.
   • 1958, Nikos Kazantzakis, The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel (1938), translated by Kimon Friar, London: Secker and Warburg, Book XIII,

     The clumsy suckling struck out with her still soft claws,

     opened her frothing mouth until her milk teeth shone.

   • 1962, “Riding Crime's Crest” in Time, 25 April, 1962, [6]

     As doctors tried in vain to save April's right eye, news stories frothed at her assailant. He was “fiendish” (the Examiner), “sadistic” (the News-Call Bulletin), “probably a sexual psychopath” (the Chronicle).

5. (transitive) To cover with froth.

   A horse froths his chain.

Translations

Derived terms

• frothy
• froth at the mouth
• froth up

References

Anagrams

• Forth, forth, forth-

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /s??f/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /s?f/
• Rhymes: -??(?)f
• Homophone: serf (in accents with the fern-fir-fur merger)

Etymology

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

Noun

surf (countable and uncountable, plural surfs)

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 […]

   • 1898, J. Meade Falkner, Moonfleet Chapter 5

     'But when the surf fell enough for the boats to get ashore, and Greening held a lantern for me to jump down into the passage, after we had got the side out of the tomb, the first thing the light fell on at the bottom was a white face turned skyward.
2. An instance or session of riding a surfboard in the surf.

3. (Britain, dialect) The bottom of a drain.

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

surf (third-person singular simple present surfs, present participle surfing, simple past and past participle surfed)

1. To ride a wave, usually on a surfboard.
2. (transitive, intransitive) To browse the Internet, television, etc.

Translations

Derived terms

• surfer (noun)

Derived terms

• (ride a wave): surfer, surfing, surfboard; crowdsurf, train-surf
• (browse the Internet): channel-surf, counter surf, cybersurf, netsurf, silver surfer

Anagrams

• Furs, furs

French

Noun

surf m (uncountable)

1. surfing

Derived terms

• surf des neiges

Related terms

• surfer
• surfeur
• surfeuse

Italian

Etymology

From English surf.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?su?f/, IPA^(key): /s??f/
• Hyphenation: sùrf

Noun

surf m (invariable)

1. (sports) surfing

Derived terms

• surfista
• surfare
• tavola da surf
• windsurf

Spanish

Etymology

From English surf.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?su?f/, [?su?f]

• IPA^(key): /?so?f/, [?so?f]

Noun

surf m (uncountable)

1. surfing

Derived terms