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turf

UK/tʌɾf/ US/tɝf/ fairly common informal slang
noun (3) verb (1)

noun

1.

surface layer of ground containing a matt of grass and grass roots

Synonyms
2.

the territory claimed by a juvenile gang as its own

3.

range of jurisdiction or influence

  • “a bureaucracy...chiefly concerned with turf...and protecting the retirement system”

verb

1.

cover (the ground) with a surface layer of grass or grass roots

Origin

From Middle English turf, torf, from Old English turf (“turf, sod, soil, piece of grass-covered earth, greensward”), from Proto-West Germanic *turb (“turf, peat”), from Proto-Germanic *turbz (“turf, lawn”), from Proto-Indo-European *derbʰ- (“tuft, grass”). Cognates Cognate with Scots turr, truff (“turf, peat”), Dutch turf (“turf”), Middle Low German torf (“peat, turf”) (whence German Torf and German Low German Torf), Danish tørv (“peat”), Faroese, Icelandic, Norwegian, and Swedish torv (“turf”), Norn *torv (“peat”), French tourbe (“peat”), Finnish turve (“turf”), Lithuanian darbas (“bunch of leaves”), durpės (“peat”), Sanskrit दर्भ (darbhá, “a type of grass”), दूर्वा (dū́rvā, “bent grass”). Not cognate with Danish torv (“square, market, marketplace”), which is instead inherited from Old Norse torg (“marketplace”), from Old East Slavic търгъ (tŭrgŭ, “trade, trading, commerce, trade square”), ultimately from Proto-Slavic *tъ̑rgъ (“merchandise, commodity, wares”).

Phrases

  • artificial turf
  • buffalo turf
  • come with the turf
  • go with the turf
  • home turf
  • on the turf
  • Smurf turf
  • surf and turf
  • turf out

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

Narrower terms

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.