Also 5–7 turve. [f. TURF sb.1]
1. trans. To cover with turf; to lay with turf.
c. 1430. Lydg., Min. Poems (Percy Soc.), 131. Alle the aleis were made playne with sond, The benches turued with newe turvis grene.
a. 1500. Flower & Leaf, 51. A plesaunt herber … That benched was, and [al] with turves new Freshly turved.
1644. G. Plattes, in Hartlib’s Legacy (1655), 187. Barley … had cover’d the ground so full, that it was as if it were even turfed with the Corn.
a. 1774. Tucker, Lt. Nat. (1834), I. 299. After you have new turfed the banks.
1882. Con. F. Woolson, Anne, 118. Graves are made and turfed over.
b. transf. To place or lay under the turf; to cover with turf, or as turf does; to bury; also intr. with it, to die and be buried.
1628. [see TURFED ppl. a.].
1763. Cowper, Lett., in Nichols, Lit. Anecd. 18th C. (1814), VII. 563. That you may not think I have turfed it, to speak in the Newmarket phrase … I send you this letter.
1844. J. T. Hewlett, Parsons & W., xxxii. Until the governor was turfed.
1859. Tennyson, Merl. & Vivien, 655. As vast a mound As after furious battle turfs the slain.
1888. G. Meredith, Question Whither, i. You who sadly turf us, Believe not that all living seed Must flower above the surface.
2. To dig up or excavate for turf or peat.
1780. Ingenhousz, in Phil. Trans., LXX. 372. Draining a large meer … which was turfed out in former ages.
1878. Davidson, Inverurie, 352. They protected the burgh muir from being indiscriminately turfed.
3. intr. To get turf or peat for fuel. dial.
1876. Whitby Gloss., s.v. Turf-spit, ‘We’re turfing,’ getting our turves for a winter supply.
1896. Baring-Gould, Dartmoor Idylls, v. 131. Her wants to take the washing … and the turving out o’ my hands.
