surface

Etymology

From French surface.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈsɜːfɪs/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈsɝːfɪs/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Noun

A computer-generated representation of a surface

surface (plural surfaces)

1. The overside or up-side of a flat object such as a table, or of a liquid.
   • 1963, Margery Allingham, “Foreword”, in The China Governess‎:

     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, […].

2. The outside hull of a tangible object.
   • 2013 May 11, “The climate of Tibet: Pole-land”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8835, page 80:

     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 July 20, “Welcome to the plastisphere”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845:

     [The researchers] noticed many of their pieces of [plastic marine] debris sported surface pits around two microns across.

3. (figuratively) Outward or external appearance.

   On the surface, the spy looked like a typical businessman.

   • Vicesimus Knox (1752-1821)

     Vain and weak understandings, which penetrate no deeper than the surface.

   • 1907, Robert William Chambers, chapter IX, in The Younger Set (Project Gutenberg; EBook #14852), New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, published 1 February 2005 (Project Gutenberg version), OCLC 24962326:

     “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, […].

4. (mathematics, geometry) The locus of an equation (especially one with exactly two degrees of freedom) in a more-than-two-dimensional space.
5. (fortification) That part of the side which is terminated by the flank prolonged, and the angle of the nearest bastion.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Stocqueler to this entry?)

Verb

surface (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. (intransitive) To come out of hiding.
5. (intransitive) For information or facts to become known.
6. (intransitive) To work a mine near the surface.
7. (intransitive) To appear or be found.

Etymology

sur- +‎ face, based on Latin superficies.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /syʁ.fas/

• audio

  (file)

• Homophones: surfaces, surfacent

Noun

surface f (plural surfaces)

1. surface

Further reading

• “surface” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).