From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]:
surf
n 1: waves breaking on the shore [syn: surf, breaker,
breakers]
v 1: ride the waves of the sea with a surfboard; "Californians
love to surf" [syn: surfboard, surf]
2: look around casually and randomly, without seeking anything
in particular; "browse a computer directory"; "surf the
internet or the world wide web" [syn: browse, surf]
3: switch channels, on television [syn: surf, channel-surf]
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Surf \Surf\, n. [Formerly spelled suffe, and probably the same
word as E. sough.]
The swell of the sea which breaks upon the shore, esp. upon a
sloping beach.
[1913 Webster]
Surf bird (Zool.), a ploverlike bird of the genus
Aphriza, allied to the turnstone.
Surf clam (Zool.), a large clam living on the open coast,
especially Mactra solidissima (syn. {Spisula
solidissima}). See Mactra.
Surf duck (Zool.), any one of several species of sea ducks
of the genus Oidemia, especially {Oidemia
percpicillata}; -- called also surf scoter. See the Note
under Scoter.
Surf fish (Zool.), any one of numerous species of
California embiotocoid fishes. See Embiotocoid.
Surf smelt. (Zool.) See Smelt.
Surf whiting. (Zool.) See under Whiting.
[1913 Webster]
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Surf \Surf\, n.
The bottom of a drain. [Prov. Eng.]
[1913 Webster]
From Jargon File (4.4.4, 14 Aug 2003) [jargon]:
surf
v.
[from the `surf' idiom for rapidly flipping TV channels] To traverse
the Internet in search of interesting stuff, used esp. if one is doing
so with a World Wide Web browser. It is also common to speak of
surfing in to a particular resource.
Hackers adopted this term early, but many have stopped using it since
it went completely mainstream around 1995. The passive, couch-potato
connotations that go with TV channel surfing were never pleasant, and
hearing non-hackers wax enthusiastic about "surfing the net" tends to
make hackers feel a bit as though their home is being overrun by
ignorami.