turves

Noun

turf (countable and uncountable, plural turfs or turves)

1. (uncountable) A layer of earth covered with grass; sod.
   • Miss Thorn began digging up the turf with her lofter: it was a painful moment for me. ¶ “You might at least have tried me, Mrs. Cooke,” I said.1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter VIII, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC
2. (countable) A piece of such a layer cut from the soil. May be used as sod to make a lawn, dried for peat, stacked to form earthen structures, etc.
   • "It's an old custom the people had when they bought and sold land. They used to cut out a clod and hand it over to the buyer, and you weren't lawfully seised of your land - it didn't really belong to you - till the other fellow had actually given you a piece of it - like this." He held out the...1906, Rudyard Kipling, Puck of Pook's Hill
3. (countable) A block of peat used as fuel.
   • In ordinary peat-bogs, however, where turves are cut, there is always a large percentage of waste peat resulting from the digging, drying or transport of the turves, which can be utilized only by moulding it.1908, Karl Gayer and W. R. Fisher, edited by Sir William Schlich, Forest Utilization (Schlich's Manual of Forestry)
4. A thick, carpet-like bed of algae.
   • The turf layer is made up of filamentous and thallose red algae.1980, An Ecological Characterization of the Pacific Northwest Coastal Region, volumes 1-2, page 84
5. (specifically, uncountable) A surface of synthetic fibers made to look like grass; artificial turf.
   • In climates where grass struggles to grow, turf is usually used instead on sports fields.
6. (slang, uncountable) A territory claimed by a gang as their own.

See all 15 meanings of turf