Forms: 1– turf; also 4–7 turfe, 4–5 torf, 4 (8–9 dial.) turff, 6–7 turffe, (5 turfh, 6 turph, tourffe, torve, towrve, 6–7 turue, turve, 7 turfth, terf, turph); 6 toure, Sc. 6– turr, (8–9 toor, ture, 9 tour, -e, etc.). Pl. 1 tyrf; 3–6 turues (v), (4–5 -uys, 6 Sc. -uis), 4–7 torues (v), (4–5 toruys), 6– turves (Sc. 6 tirvis); 5– turfs (6 tyrfes, 6–7 Sc. turreffis, turres, -is). β. 6 troffe, 7 truffe, 7–9 truff; pl. Sc. 6–7 truiffis, 6–8 troves, -is. [OE. turf fem. cons. stem (gen.-dat. sing. and nom.-acc. pl. tyrf): Common Teut. (with variation of gender and declension); cf. OFris. turf (EFris. turf); OS. turf, (MDu. torf, turf, Du. turf), MLG., LG. torf (whence mod.Ger. torf peat); OHG. zurba, zurf ‘terra avulsa, cespes,’ sod; ON. torf (Norw. torv, Sw. torf, Da. tørv):—OTeut. *turb-, from Indo Eur. *drbh: cf. Skr. darbhá tuft of grass, f. drbh to make into tufts, string together. From the Teut. came also med.L. turba (cf. TURBARY), F. tourbe (1200), It. torba, Sp. turba.]
1. A slab pared from the surface of the soil with the grass and herbage growing on it; a sod of grass, with the roots and earth adhering. Also, in early quots., a small portion of the sward in situ.
c. 725. Corpus Gloss. (O.E.T.) 452. Cespites (pl.), tyrb.
a. 1000. Prose Life Guthlac, xv. (1848), 64. Hi þa [flaxan] ʓehyddon under anre tyrf.
c. 1000. Sax. Leechd., I. 299. Ðeos wyrt … of anre tyrf maneʓa boʓas asendeþ.
c. 1122. O. E. Chron., an. 189. Þa ʓewrohte he [Seuerus] weall mid turfum, & bred weall ðær on ufon fram sæ to sæ.
c. 1205. Lay., 15395. Vortigerne þe king Bi-tæhte heom al þis lond ꝥ ne bilæfde him an heonde a turf of londe.
a. 1250. Owl & Night., 1167. Hervore hit is þat me þe suneþ & þe totorueþ & tobuneþ Mid staue & stone & turf & clute.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 16762 + 120 (Cott.). War-on he miȝt dee fayre, Ne a torf of herd erth.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Merch. T., 91. A bench of turues [v.rr. turves, torues] fressh and grene.
c. 1482. J. Kay, trans. Caoursin’s Siege of Rhodes (1870), ¶ 11. They made certayn dyches … and couered theym with grene bowes, and afterward they putted erthe and turues uppon the same.
1550. Bale, Eng. Votaries, II. 57 b. His owne clergye wold scarsely suffer hym to be buryed about the church vndre turfes or soddes of the grasse.
1551. Robinson, trans. More’s Utop., I. (1895), 29. Vpon a benche coueryd wyth grene torues, we satte downe.
1691. Norris, Pract. Disc., 252. There are some … that … will readily part with the great Reversion of another World for a Turf of Ground in present Possession.
1776. Withering, Brit. Plants (1796), II. 509. In a turf containing 6 plants the roots were all distinct.
1832. Planting, 53, in Libr. Usef. Knowl., Husb., III. The coping consisted of a row of turfs laid with the grass side upwards.
1851. Glenny, Handbk. Fl. Gard., 40. The compost in which it should be grown is loam from rotted turves.
b. collect., as a substance or material.
1565. Stapleton, trans. Bede’s Hist. Ch. Eng., 16. A trench and a rampaire of turue and timber, thyck fenced with bulwarkes and turrets.
1598. Barret, Theor. Warres, III. ii. 132. A number of other places fortified with earth and turfe onely.
1774. M. Mackenzie, Maritime Surv., 66. Cause Turrets, or Signals, of Stone or Turf, to be built.
1821. Byron, Cain, III. i. They to me are so much turf And stone.
† c. A clod of earth. Also fig. cf. CLOD sb. 4. Obs.
1607. Marston, What You Will, II. i. He is a turfe that will be slave to man.
1674. Abp. Leighton, in Lauderdale Papers (Camden), III. 76. Those pains and distempers that hang about this litle crazy turf of earth yt I carry.
† d. A sod cut from the turf of an estate, etc., as a token or symbol of possession. Also in phrase turf and twig. Obs.
1585. in H. Hall, Soc. Eliz. Age (1886), 239. Delyvered lyke possession … by a turffe cutt there.
1613. R. Harcourt, Voy. Guiana, 42. I tooke possession of the land, by turfe and twig.
1643. Trapp, Comm. Gen. xiv. 23. The most High God, possessour of heaven and earth, who hath sent me with this bread and wine, as by turfe and twig, as by an earnest, and a little for the whole, to give the possession of both.
2. collect. sing. The covering of grass and other plants, with its matted roots, forming the surface of grass land; the greensward; growing grass. Also fig.
c. 890. trans. Bæda’s Hist., V. vi. (1890), 400. Sum stan ðære eorðan ʓelic mid ðinre tyrf bewriʓen.
a. 1000. Gloss., in Wr.-Wülcker, 236/18. Feraces glebas, þa wæstmbære tyrf. Ibid., 240/27. Florci cespitis, blowendre tyrf.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), II. 15. Vnder þe torf of þe lond is good marl i-founde.
1600. Shaks., A. Y. L., III. iv. 52. The Shepheard … Who you saw sitting by me on the Turph.
1634. Milton, Comus, 280. They left me weary on a grassie terf.
1721. Bradley, Philos. Acc. Wks. Nat., 4. The first Stratum immediately under the Turff, a yellowish Clay.
1838. Lytton, Alice, I. i. The first few flowers and fresh turf of the reviving Spring.
1895. G. W. Smalley, Stud. Men, 144. Sunny glades clothed in rough turf.
b. as a substance or material.
1601. Holland, Pliny, XVII. xiv. 518. To preserve it [the graft] with turfe and mosse against the injurie of rain and cold.
1632. Lithgow, Trav., X. 429. These Fabrickes are … erected in a singular Frame of Smoake-torne straw, greene long prick’d truff [ed. 1682 turff], and Raine-dropping watles.
1706. Hearne, Collect., 12 April (O.H.S.), I. 223. The … Garden … he order’d to be cover’d with Green Turff.
1874. J. D. Heath, Croquet Player, 87. If the subsoil be poor, the turf should not be placed directly on it, but on a layer of good earth some inches thick.
3. A slab or block of peat dug for use as fuel.
But in many districts turfs are distinguished from peats, as being pared from a dry surface, containing roots of grass and recent herbage, and being lighter colored, while peats are usually dug from a ‘moss’ or bog, and consist chiefly of long-decayed and compressed vegetable matter, black or dark brown, formed from Sphagnum and other mosses.
c. 1300. Havelok, 939. He bar þe turues, he bar þe star, Þe wode fro the brigge he bar.
1363. Cockersand Chartul. (Chetham Soc.), I. 64. To delfe turvez and carye at theyr wylle in ye mosse of Gayrstang.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XV. lviii. (Bodl. MS.). Myres and mores in þe whiche þei diggeþ turues and makeþ fuyre þereof in stede of wode.
1506. Reg. Mag. Sig. Scot., I. 623/2. Licentiam ad capiendum genestam, petas et glebas, viz. le hadir, petis et turffis.
1536. Act 28 Hen. VIII., in Bolton, Stat. Irel. (1621), 77. The third part of all the tythe torves.
1557. Peebles Burgh Rec. (1872), 235. Castand tirvis … without licence.
1592. Reg. Mag. Sig. Scot., 755/1. Turris.
1604. Uric Court-bk. (1892), 4. Fewaill … syik as petteis, turris, or haidder.
1637. Reg. Mag. Sig. Scot., 237/2. Cum … libertate lucrandi lie peittis plodis et truffis in maresia sua.
1709. Lady Grisell Baillie, Househ. Bk. (1911), 77. For 8 darg troves casting at 6 pence per day.
17[?]. Old Song, in Jamieson s.v. Tour, O! is my corn a’ shorn, he said, Or is my toors a’ won?
1809. Med. Jrnl., XXI. 7. Turfs or peat, dug for fuel in the fenny parts of Cambridgshire.
1822. C. W. Wynn, in Dk. Buckhm., Mem. Crt. Geo. IV. (1859), I. 275. There are considerable apprehension in Ireland of distress from the utter failure of the potatoes,… and of the turves which they were prevented by the wet from cutting.
b. collect. as a substance; peat.
1510. in 10th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm., App. V. 394. Anny man to bring in wode, troffe, or vattil.
1573. Tusser, Husb. (1878), 133. Er winter preuenteth,… get home with thy wood,… both timber and furzen, the turfe and the cole.
1610. Holland, Camden’s Brit. (1637), 500. Abundance of turfe gotten for fewell.
1725. Bradley’s Fam. Dict., s.v. Turfing Spade, In some Counties they call that Turf, which in others they name Peat, which is dug out of Fenny and Moorish Grounds.
1796. Morse, Amer. Geog., I. 523. There is said to be coal on Raritan river,… and turf in Bethlehem.
1818. Scott, Rob Roy, xxvii. Swamps, green with treacherous verdure, or sable with turf, or, as they call them in Scotland, peat-bogs.
1866. Rogers, Agric. & Prices, I. ii. 12. All tenants had right of pasture, and sometimes of turf.
1878. Huxley, Physiogr., 233. Accumulations of partially decomposed vegetable matter form the substance known as peat or turf.
4. The turf (often with capital T): The grassy track or course over which horse-racing takes place; hence, the institution, action, or practice of horse-racing; the racing world.
1755. Gentl. Mag., April, 153/1. If you are a true sportsman, and have the honour of the turf at heart.
1771. P. Parsons, Newmarket, I. p. ii. The heroes of the Turf.
1785. Grose, Dict. Vulg. Tongue, Man of the turf, a horse racer, or jockey.
1803–5. W. Pick, Turf Reg. (title-p.), All the Horses … that have appeared on the British and Irish Turfs as Racers.
1838. Lytton, Alice, III. v. Have you any horses on the turf?
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., iii. I. 315. Already … there was among our nobility and gentry a passion for the amusements of the turf.
5. attrib. and Comb. a. simple attrib., as turf-ashes, -back (BACK sb.2), -bed, -bog, -cart, -charcoal, -fire, -fuel, ground, -heap, -hole, -house, -land, -moor, -moss, -nook, -pit, -pool, -rick, -shears, -shed, -smoke, -stack, -wain; made, built, or consisting of turf, as turf-cabin, -dike, -hedge (Webster, 1828), -hut, -monument, -roof, -seat, -walk, -wall; also in sense 4, as turf affair, -associate, -guide, horse, -market, parlance, phrase, -racing, -writer; b. obj. and obj. gen., as turf-digger, -getter, -graver, -worker; turf-boring, -cutting, -forming, -getting, -graving sbs. and adjs.; c. instrumental, etc., as turf-bound, -built, -clad, -covered, -grown, -laid, -like, -roofed, -spread, -theekit (Sc., = thatched) adjs.
1825. T. Hook, Sayings, Ser. II. Man of Many Fr. (Colburn), 195. The man to whose guidance I have committed all my *turf affairs.
1763. Museum Rust., I. 221. One sort of ashes, which are on all accounts valuable; I mean peat or *turf-ashes.
1818. Scott, Rob Roy, xxviii. I boldly entered the house;… narrowly escaping breaking my shins over a *turf-back and a salting-tub.
1811. W. R. Spencer, Poems, 137. This *turf-bed with flow’rs Ever crown’d.
1685. W. King, in Phil. Trans., XV. 950. I chiefly impute the red, or *turf Bog to it [moss, called in the north of Ireland old wives’ tow].
1767. Bush, Hibernia Cur. (1769), 76. By the natives it [peat] is called turf … and from thence they are usually called turf bogs.
1816. Kirby & Sp., Entomol., xxiii. (1818), II. 368. The common *turf-boring crane-fly (T[ipula] oleracea, L.) … moves over the grass with her body in a vertical position.
1787. Winter, Syst. Husb., 219. Harrowing loosens the hardened, *turf-bound soil.
a. 1748. J. Warton, Ode to Fancy, 5. My footsteps to thy temple guide, To offer at thy *turf-built shrine.
1803. Leyden, Scenes of Inf., III. 364. On Yeta’s banks the vagrant gypsies place Their turf-built cots; a sun-burnt swarthy race.
1865. Alex. Smith, Summ. Skye, v. 103. His school-house was a *turf-cabin.
1557. in Lanc. & Chesh. Wills (1884), 61. Implements of husbandrye … ij *torve cartes.
1839. Civil Eng. & Arch. Jrnl., II. 145/2. The iron founders … might probably … be supplied with *turf-charcoal.
1782. V. Knox, Ess., xciii. II. 45. The *turf-clad heap of mould which covers the poor man’s grave.
1828. Webster, *Turf-covered.
1898. F. Davis, Rom.-Brit. City Silchester, 21. Over the turf-covered area, denudation is not inoperative.
1868. Rep. U.S. Commissioner Agric. (1869), 154. *Turf-cutting field.
1882. F. Pollock, in Macm. Mag., XLVI. 362. It is subject … to rights of turf-cutting.
1851. Mantell, Petrifact., iii. § 5. 308. A spade used by *turf-diggers.
1863. Kingsley, Water Bab., v. 193. They liked better to brew potheen … shoot each other from behind *turf-dykes.
1818. Lady Morgan, Autobiog. (1859), 88. All my Irish *turf-fire habits came strong upon me.
1880. Haughton, Phys. Geog., vi. 301. Its meadows are clothed with *turf-forming grasses.
1838. Civil Eng. & Arch. Jrnl., I. 383/2. *Turf fuel is also used most extensively in working the steam engine in many districts of Ireland.
1751. Phil. Trans., XLVII. 221. I … have made all possible inquiry from the shepherds, *turf-getters, &c.
1884. Cheshire Gloss., s.v. Turf, *Turf-getting is a peculiar industry carried on at most of the larger peat bogs, and notably at Lindow Common near Wilmslow.
1483. Cath. Angl., 397/1. A *Turfe grauer, glebarius, turbarius.
a. 1905. in Eng. Dial. Dict., s.v., (N. Yorks.) We cut turves wiv a turf-greeaver.
1411. Rolls of Parlt., III. 650/1. Certein Commune of Pasture, and *Turf-gravyng, the whiche the said Lord the Roos claymes.
1599. Nashe, Lenten Stuffe, 8. As stable as clod-mould, or *turffe ground.
1893. Pater, Wks. (1901), VIII. 147. They went through the endless, lonely, *turf-grown tracts.
1868. Yates, Rock Ahead, I. vi. Ruff, Bell, Bailey, and other leading *turf-guides.
1862. Borrow, Wild Wales, lxxxviii. (1911), 453. *Turf-heaps … are in abundance in the vicinity. Ibid. (1851), Lavengro, xii. He had some difficulty in getting there on account of the *turf-holes in the bog.
c. 1802. S. Chifney, Genius Genuine (title-p.), Why the *Turf Horses Degenerate.
1569. in Lanc. & Chesh. Wills (1884), 35. The haybarne and two bayes of the *turfchowse next the halle.
1865. Alex. Smith, Summ. Skye, v. 101. We passed a colony of *turf-huts.
1806. J. Grahame, Birds Scot., etc., 141. Still shall the *turf-laid seat invite Thy weary limbs.
a. 1625. Sir H. Finch, Law (1636), 286. Likewise an assise is giuen for common of *Turue land, fishing, and such like.
1756–7. trans. Keysler’s Trav. (1760), III. 315. That ashes, coals, bones, potsherds, trees, &c. are frequently found in the turf-lands or marshes in Holland and Friesland.
1910. Westm. Gaz., 19 March, 10/2. Hard at work in converting the barren surface into turf-land.
1841. Lever, C. O’Malley, xxx. A brown, scruffy, *turf-like face.
1884. H. Smart, From Post to Finish, ix. One of the wiliest speculators in the *turf market.
1695. J. Edwards, Perfect. Script., 286. There are many of these Turf-Monuments on Salisbury-Plain.
1834–5. J. Phillips, Geol., in Encycl. Metrop., VI. 595/2. The *turf or peat moors,… which occur in low ground toward the estuaries of rivers.
1583–4. Shuttleworths’ Acc. (Chetham Soc.), 17. For workinge at the *tourffe mosse [= bog] nene dayes xiijd ob.
1840. A. Laing, Wayside Flowers (1878), 37. The *truff neuk is toom o’ its eenin’ supply.
1884. Marshall’s Tennis Cuts, 148. It is only played by what in *Turf-parlance we should call ‘crocks,’ or gentlemen who are not physically capable of taking part in any other outdoor amusement. Ibid., 141. From first to last Owen à Biscoe simply cantered away (to use a *turf phrase) from his antagonist.
1678. Massacre in Ireland, 4. Thousands … were drowned, cast into Ditches, Bogs, and *Turf-pits.
1764. Museum Rust., II. cvi. 355. The pits, or *turf-pools as they are commonly called.
1828. Sporting Mag., XXII. 235. His happiness was road-racing, as it is now *turf-racing.
1869. Blackmore, Lorna D., iv. A dozen men, who seemed to come out of a *turf-rick.
1871. W. Morris, in Mackail, Life (1899), I. 247. Close by the sea lay the many gables (black wood with green *turf-roofs).
1842. I. Williams, Baptistery, II. xxxii. (1874), 188. With each her Saviour deigns to dwell E’en in the *turf-roof’d cell.
1818. Scott, Hrt. Midl., xviii. The old man was seated on the deas, or *turf-seat, at the end of his cottage.
1822. Loudon, Encycl. Gard., § 617. *Turf-Shears…, for cutting the tops of box-edgings and the tufts of grass at the roots of shrubs.
1912. Daily News, 4 Oct., 6. The peat … has been stacked by now in rick or *turf-shed ready for the winter’s burning.
1815. Scott, Guy M., xxvi. Fish, dried in the *turf smoke of their cabins, or shealings.
1743. Lady Grisell Baillie, Househ. Bk. (1911), 279. That the *Turf Stack be not tred down.
1881. Mod. Scott. Poets, III. 75. Thy *turf-theekit roof.
1902. Cornish, Naturalist Thames, 181. Hall wild banks, and *turfwalk stretches for nearly a mile among the fields.
1911. J. Ward, Rom. Era in Brit., iii. 70. No trace of a *turf-wall has been found.
1589. Shuttleworths’ Acc. (Chetham Soc.), 52. For dryvinge a *turffe-wane a fortenyghte, xvjd.
1865. Daily Tel., 1 Nov., 5/1. ‘Warning off’ intruders, whether defaulting betters, or *turf-writers whose criticisms were displeasing.
d. Special combs.: turf-accountant, a bookmaker in horse-racing; turf-ant, a small yellow European ant (Formica flava, or Lasius flavus), living in dry heathy turf; turf-boy (see quots.); turf-cake, a tea-cake baked in a covered pan among the ashes of a peat-fire; turf-cutter, one who is employed in cutting or digging peat; also, a turf-spade; also, a paring-plough or turf-plough; turf-drain, a drain in which the channel is covered by turves placed over it; a sod-drain; so turf-draining; † turf-graft [GRAFT sb.3], the right to dig turf for fuel; also, a place where turf is dug, a turbary; turf-hog: see quot.; turf-knife, a cutting blade set upright in a curved handle, which is pushed along to mark out turves, lines of ditches, etc. (Ogilvie, 1882); turf-man, a devotee of the turf, a racing man; † turf-penny, a rent or due paid for turbary; turf-plough, a plough for paring off the surface to destroy weeds and grubs preparatory to deep plowing (Knight, Dict. Mech., 1877); turf-spade, a spade for cutting turf or peats; also, a turfing-iron; turf-spanker, name for a kind of croquet mallet: see quot.; turf-stick, a stick from a turbary or peat-bog; turf-tie: see TYE; turf-time, the season for digging turf, usually between hay-time and harvest; turf-worm, the sod-worm (SOD sb.1 5).
1915. Scots Pictorial, 27 March, p. iv. The time when the standing and stability of all *turf accountants are put to the test.
1816. Kirby & Sp., Entomol. (1818), II. 94. The little *turf-ants (F[ormica] cæspitum, L.) carry their recruits uncoiled.
1905. Blackw. Mag., Jan., 58. There was the *turf boy whose duty it was to fill the turf-boxes.
1906. Somerville & Ross, Irish Yesterdays, 71. In those days the turf-boy was an institution…. All day they plied bare-foot between the turf-house and the various fuel-depôts of the house with baskets.
1863. Mrs. Gaskell, Sylvia’s L., iii. Neither cream nor finest wheaten flour was wanting for *‘turf-cakes’ and ‘singing-hinnies.’
1817–8. Cobbett, Resid. U. S. (1822), 129. The surface of the land is taken off to a depth of two or three inches…. In England, this operation is performed with a *turf-cutter, and by hand.
1844. in Whitelaw, Bk. Scot. Song (1875), 228. I promised to rove With the turf-cutter’s daughter.
1860. G. H. K., in Vac. Tour., 164. The turf-cutter left her divots unturned.
1805. R. W. Dickson, Pract. Agric., I. Plate xlviii. 332. Fig. 1. Represents a shouldered *turf-drain.
1830. Glouc. Farm Rep., 26, in Libr. Usef. Knowl., Husb., III. *Turf-draining answers well, where the turf is strong enough to bear ramming.
1313. Yorkshire Deeds (Yorks. Archæol. Soc.), II. 18. [His common of pasture with] le *turff graft [from either moor].
1483. Cath. Angl., 396/2. Turfe grafte, turbarium.
1773. Holme-on-Sp. Moor Inclos. Act, 2. Which privilege of selling turves is called Turf-Graft.
1880. Dawkins, Early Man, viii. 261. The third group consists of the short-horned ox, the *turf-hog, and the goat, which escaped from the servitude of man and reverted to a wild state.
1818. Sporting Mag., II. 214. I never was a *turfman, and am only a spectator.
1881. Scribner’s Mag., XXII. 642. The form which turfmen love to see in a horse which they have backed heavily.
1282. Inquis. P. M. (C.) Edw. I., File 31. m. 3 (P.R.O.). Coterii et bondi reddunt per annum de consuetudine que vocatur *Turfpeny et grundpeni xlviij s. x d.
1477–8. Durham Acc. Rolls (Surtees), 95. Pro j *Turfspade, viijd.
1824. Loudon, Encycl. Gard., 2101. The turf-spade or turfing iron is employed to separate the individual turves.
1868. Atkinson, Cleveland Gloss., Turf-spade, turf-spit, the implement or tool used in graving Turves,… a triangular cutting instrument with one upright side, to sever the Turf sideways as well as from the subsoil.
1874. J. D. Heath, Croquet-Player, 25. The bottom of the cylindrical head … is sliced off, so that the part of the mallet that rests on the ground is quite flat. This *‘turf-spanker’ … met with some opposition at first.
1843. Florist’s Jrnl. (1846), IV. 86. A mixture of loam and peat, with all the *turf-sticks, etc. contained in it, should be well chopped with the spade and mixed with some rich garden mould.
1912. Daily News, 28 Feb., 4. Every Dartmoor farmer has his *turf-tie lying somewhere near his farm in a hollow between the tors.
1594. Shuttleworths’ Acc. (Chetham Soc.), 90. He is to be hired for haytyme, *turvetyme and harvest.
