a. Forms: see TURF sb.1 [f. TURF sb.1 + -Y.]
1. Covered with or consisting of turf; grassy; turfen; in quot. 1733, of arable land: full of weeds and roots, not ‘clean.’
1552. Huloet, Turffie, or of turfe, cespitius, a.
1610. Shaks., Temp., IV. i. 62. Thy Turphie-Mountaines, where liue nibling Sheepe.
1685. Pomfret, Cruelty & Lust, 149. When Charion saw me from his turfy bed.
1718. Rowe, trans. Lucan, 137. Each to his turphy Table bids his Guest.
1733. Tull, Horse-Hoeing Husb., xi. 136. The Third Crop made that Land so Foul and Turffy, that ’twas forc’d to lie for a Fallow.
1818. Miss Mitford, in L’Estrange, Life (1870), II. ii. 23. A turfy, almost inaccessible hill, called Finchamstead Ridges.
1869. Tozer, Highl. Turkey, II. 185. We made our way along a turfy level to the city.
2. Of the nature of or abounding in turf or peat; peaty.
1660. H. More, Myst. Godl., VI. vii. 231. For what of the Earth is not combustible? The exteriour turfy part is ordinary fewel.
a. 1661. Fuller, Worthies, Lanc. (1662), II. 107. They pierce the Turffie ground, and under it meet with a black and deadish water.
1776. Withering, Brit. Plants (1796), II. 362. Alisma ranunculoides … Lesser Thrumwort. Wet turfy bogs…. Boggy meadows, common. Bungay, Suffolk.
1842. Loudon, Suburban Hort., 509. He uses turfy loam two parts, thoroughly decomposed dung two parts, leaf mould two parts, and very sandy turfy peat two parts.
1870. Hooker, Stud. Flora, 302. Centunculus minimus.… Wet turfy and sandy places, local.
3. Pertaining to or characteristic of the turf; suggestive of horse-racing; horsy.
1844. Dickens, Mart. Chuz., xxvi. It was an easy, horse-fleshy, turfy sort of thing to do.
1868. Yates, Rock Ahead, II. vii. The man has an air of turfey, horsey life.
1885. ‘Mrs. Alexander,’ At Bay, ii. The talk became … of the Turf—turfy.
Hence Turfiness, turfy character, horsiness.
1905. Daily Chron., 22 June, 4/4. Each American newcomer feels … at first horribly out of it in this world of universal turfyness.
