† suff Obs.
Also 6–7 suffe, 7 zuft (?).
[Of unascertained origin; the relation to surf is obscure.]
The inrush (of the sea) towards the shore.
An early instance is perhaps to be found in c 1475 Pict. Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 800/25 Hec ledonis, a sulse [? read suffe].
| 1599 Hakluyt Voy. II. i. 227 The Suffe of the Sea setteth her lading dry on land. 1600 Ibid. iii. 848 So neere the shore, that the counter-suffe of the sea would rebound against the shippes side. 1621 in Foster Eng. Factories Ind. (1906) 262 The suffe of the seaes caried us violently on the shoule. 1625 Sir J. Glanville Voy. Cadiz (Camden) 99 The workeing high goeing (or Zuft as they call it) of the Sea against the same shore. 1687 Phil. Trans. XVI. 496 After what manner they were to make their Descent, particularly in relation to the Suff of the Sea. |