turf

From Middle English turf, torf, from Old English turf (“turf, sod, soil, piece of grass covered earth, greensward”), from Proto-West Germanic *turb, from Proto-Germanic *turbz (“turf, lawn”), from Proto-Indo-European *derbʰ- (“tuft, grass”).

Cognate with Dutch turf (“turf”), Middle Low German torf (“peat, turf”) (whence German Torf and German Low German Torf), Swedish torv (“turf”), Norwegian torv (“turf”), Icelandic torf (“turf”), Russian трава (trava, “grass”), Sanskrit दर्भ (darbhá, “a kind of grass”), दूर्वा (dū́rvā, “bent grass”).

• (General American) IPA^(key): /tɝf/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /tɜːf/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)f
• Homophone: TERF

turf (countable and uncountable, plural turfs or turves)

1. (uncountable) A layer of earth covered with grass; sod.
   • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter VIII, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:

     Miss Thorn began digging up the turf with her lofter: it was a painful moment for me. ¶ “You might at least have tried me, Mrs. Cooke,” I said.

   • 2018 May 26, Daniel Taylor, “Liverpool go through after Mohamed Salah stops Manchester City fightback”, in The Guardian (London)‎^[1]:

     It was a sixth successive defeat for Klopp in a major final and at the final whistle, with Karius burying his face into the turf, there was not exactly a stampede of team-mates wanting to console him.

2. (countable) A piece of such a layer cut from the soil. May be used as sod to make a lawn, dried for peat, stacked to form earthen structures, etc.
   • 1906, Rudyard Kipling, Puck of Pook's Hill:

     "It's an old custom the people had when they bought and sold land. They used to cut out a clod and hand it over to the buyer, and you weren't lawfully seised of your land - it didn't really belong to you - till the other fellow had actually given you a piece of it - like this." He held out the turves.

   • 1955, J. R. R. Tolkien, The Return of the King:

     Frodo and Sam went forward and saw that amidst the clamorous host were set three high-seats built of green turves.

3. (countable) A block of peat used as fuel.
   • 1908, Karl Gayer and W. R. Fisher, edited by Sir William Schlich, Forest Utilization (Schlich's Manual of Forestry):

     In ordinary peat-bogs, however, where turves are cut, there is always a large percentage of waste peat resulting from the digging, drying or transport of the turves, which can be utilized only by moulding it.

   • 1945 January and February, “Notes and News: Locomotive Firing with Turf”, in Railway Magazine, page 46:

     […] the fireman has to divide his time between getting up into the bunker to throw more turfs into the cab, and getting down on his hands and knees to get it into the firebox, and even then a reserve supply of turf must be carried on a truck behind the engine, and stops must be made on each steep ascent to raise more steam.

4. (uncountable, countable) A thick, carpet-like bed of algae.
   • 1980, An Ecological Characterization of the Pacific Northwest Coastal Region, volumes 1-2, page 84:

     The turf layer is made up of filamentous and thallose red algae.

5. (uncountable, specifically) A surface of synthetic fibers made to look like grass; artificial turf.

   In climates where grass struggles to grow, turf is usually used instead on sports fields.

   • 2022 November 13, Dennis Young, “49ers continue fight against turf fields: 'Owners choose to save money'”, in SFGate‎^[2], archived from the original on 2023-10-12:

     The Niners have nine games left on the schedule, and only one visit to a turf field. That turf in Seattle is not slit film; while the NFL admits slit film fields lead to more ankle sprains, the league insists that turf is otherwise no more dangerous than grass.

   • 2023 September 13, Albert Breer, “In Grass Vs. Turf Debate, NFL Owners Still Won't Spend to Protect Their Players”, in Sports Illustrated‎^[3], New York, N.Y.: Arena Group Holdings, Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-09-14:

     And accommodating all those events has made it harder and harder for teams to maintain grass fields. It's easier, cheaper and less time-consuming just to throw turf down and call it a day, hence artificial surfaces popping up even in outdoor stadiums and Sun-Belt cities such as Charlotte, N.C., and Nashville, Tenn.

   • 2023 November 21, Sarah Law, “Thunder Bay's long-awaited indoor turf facility delayed again as council seeks to cut costs”, in CBC News‎^[4], archived from the original on 2023-12-15:

     Thunder Bay Coun. Mark Bentz has put forward a referral of a motion that would see the indoor turf facility capped at around $30 million. Councillors voted in favour of the decision, which will see further consultations with user groups about how to re-scope the project.

6. (uncountable, slang) A territory claimed by a gang as their own.
7. (uncountable, by extension) A person's domain or sphere of influence.
8. (uncountable, with "the", sports) A racetrack, hippodrome.
9. (uncountable, with "the", sports) The sport of racing horses.

turf (third-person singular simple present turfs, present participle turfing, simple past and past participle turfed)

1. To cover with turf; to create a lawn by laying turfs.
2. (Ultimate Frisbee) To throw a frisbee well short of its intended target, usually causing it to hit the ground within 10 yards of its release.
3. (business) To fire from a job or dismiss from a task.

   Eight managers were turfed after the merger of the two companies.

4. (business) To cancel a project or product.

   The company turfed the concept car because the prototype performed poorly.

5. (informal, transitive) To expel, eject, or throw out; to turf out.
   • 1968, Eric Herne, The Haunted Islands‎^[5], page 18:

     He has the mistaken idea that he is a lap dog, and loves to be nursed, especially by ladies, but eighty-five pounds on your lap is no joke, and he can never understand why he gets turfed off.

   • 1988, Simon Haw with Richard Frame, For Hearth and Home: The Story of Maritzburg College, 1863-1988‎^[6], page 166:

     At the same time as College was being unceremoniously turfed from their premises, a similar process was affecting the Estcourt School.

6. (medical slang, transitive) To transfer or attempt to transfer (a patient or case); to eschew or avoid responsibility for.
   • 1996, Jeffrey E. Nash, James M. Calonico, The Meaning of Social Interaction: An Introduction to Social Psychology‎^[7], page 139:

     "Sure thing, I buffed her, and they turfed her to urology, but she bounced back to me!" […] They want to transfer responsibility for her to another branch of the hospital (turf her).

• turfer
• turf out

• ruft

• IPA^(key): /tʏrf/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: turf
• Rhymes: -ʏrf

From Middle Dutch torf, from Old Dutch *torf, from Proto-West Germanic *turb, from Proto-Germanic *turbz (“turf, lawn”), from Proto-Indo-European *derbʰ- (“tuft, grass”).

turf m (plural turven, diminutive turfje n)

1. peat
2. a tally mark representing five
3. (informal) a fat book, tome; a book containing many pages

• turfgas
• turfsteker
• turfwinning

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

turf

1. inflection of turven:
   1. first-person singular present indicative
   2. (in case of inversion) second-person singular present indicative
   3. imperative

• ruft

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

• IPA^(key): [ˈturf]
• Hyphenation: turf
• Rhymes: -urf

turf (plural turfok)

1. (sports) turf (a racetrack, hippodrome; or the sport of racing horses.)

• turf in Bárczi, Géza and László Országh. A magyar nyelv értelmező szótára (“The Explanatory Dictionary of the Hungarian Language”, abbr.: ÉrtSz.). Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1959–1962. Fifth ed., 1992: →ISBN

• turfe, torf, tourfe

From Old English turf, from Proto-West Germanic *turb, from Proto-Germanic *turbz.

• IPA^(key): /turf/

turf (plural turfes or turves)

1. soil, earth

• English: turf
• Scots: turr, truff
• Yola: thrive

• “turf, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

From Proto-West Germanic *turb, from Proto-Germanic *turbz.

• IPA^(key): /turf/, [turˠf]

turf f (nominative plural tyrf)

1. turf

Strong consonant stem:

• Middle English: turf, turfe, torf, tourfe
  • English: turf
  • Scots: turr, truff
  • Yola: thrive

• Joseph Bosworth and T. Northcote Toller (1898) “turf”, in An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary‎^[8], 2nd edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Borrowed from French turf, from English turf.

turf n (plural turfuri)

1. (sports) turf (a racetrack, hippodrome; or the sport of racing horses.)

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

turf m (plural turfs)

1. (with definite article, sports) turf (a racetrack, hippodrome; or the sport of racing horses.)