Definition of "surface"

surface

/ˈsɜːfɪs/

noun
plural surfaces
1. The overside or up-side of a flat object such as a table, or of a liquid.
  Quotations
  A very neat old woman, still in her good outdoor coat and best beehive hat, was sitting at a polished mahogany table on whose surface there were several scored scratches so deep that a triangular piece of the veneer had come cleanly away, […].
  1963, Margery Allingham, “Foreword”, in The China Governess‎
2. The outside hull of a tangible object.
  Quotations
  Of all the transitions brought about on the Earth’s surface by temperature change, the melting of ice into water is the starkest. It is binary. And for the land beneath, the air above and the life around, it changes everything.
  2013 May 11, “The climate of Tibet: Pole-land”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8835, page 80
  [The researchers] noticed many of their pieces of [plastic marine] debris sported surface pits around two microns across.
  2013 July 20, “Welcome to the plastisphere”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845
3. (figurative) Outward or external appearance.
  Quotations
  Such characters as have nothing but external accompliſhments to recommend them, may indeed be greatly admired and approved by vain and weak underſtandings, which penetrate no deeper than the ſurface; but they are deſpiſed by all the truly ſenſible, and pitied by all the truly good.
  1782, Vicesimus Knox, “On knowing the world at an early age”, in Liberal education: , pages 393–394
  “A tight little craft,” was Austin’s invariable comment on the matron; and she looked it, always trim and trig and smooth of surface like a converted yacht cleared for action. ¶ Near her wandered her husband, orientally bland, invariably affable, […].
  1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter IX, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company
4. (mathematics, geometry) The locus of an equation (especially one with exactly two degrees of freedom) in a more-than-two-dimensional space.
verb
third-person singular simple present surfaces, present participle surfacing, simple past and past participle surfaced
1. (transitive) To provide something with a surface.
2. (transitive) To apply a surface to something.
3. (intransitive) To rise to the surface.
4. (transitive) To bring to the surface.
  Quotations
  Sage went immediately to work; Damien surfaced the submarine and readied the group to meet outside the hatch.
  2007, Patrick Valentine, The Sage of Aquarius, page 182
5. (intransitive, figurative) To come out of hiding.
6. (intransitive, of information or facts) To become known or apparent; to appear or be found.
  Quotations
  Subordinate clauses, by contrast, exhibit V1 or V2 only around 35% of the time, with the verb usually surfacing later.
  2013, George Walkden, “The status of hwæt in Old English”, in English Language and Linguistics, volume 17, number 3
7. (transitive) To make (information or facts) known.
8. (intransitive) To work a mine near the surface.

Definition of "surface"

surface

noun

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verb

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