Crossword clues for scurf
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Scurf \Scurf\, n. [AS. scurf, sceorf, or from Scand.; cf. Sw. skorf, Dan. skurv, Icel. skurfur, D. schurft, G. schorf; all akin to AS. scurf, and to AS. sceorfan to scrape, to gnaw, G. sch["u]rfen to scrape, and probably also to E. scrape. Cf. Scurvy.]
Thin dry scales or scabs upon the body; especially, thin scales exfoliated from the cuticle, particularly of the scalp; dandruff.
-
Hence, the foul remains of anything adherent.
The scurf is worn away of each committed crime.
--Dryden. -
Anything like flakes or scales adhering to a surface.
There stood a hill not far, whose grisly top Belched fire and rolling smoke; the rest entire Shone with a glossy scurf.
--Milton. (Bot.) Minute membranous scales on the surface of some leaves, as in the goosefoot.
--Gray.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
late Old English sceorf, from Proto-Germanic *skurf- (cognates: Danish skurv, Middle Dutch scorf, Dutch schurft, Old High German scorf, German Schorf "scurf"), probably related to Old English sceorfan "to gnaw," scearfian "to cut into shreds," from PIE *skerp-, from root *(s)ker- "to cut" (see shear (v.)).
Wiktionary
n. 1 A skin disease. 2 The flakes of skin that fall off as a result of a skin disease. 3 Any crust-like formations on the skin, or in general. 4 (context figurative English) The foul remains of anything adherent. 5 (context botany English) Minute membranous scales on the surface of some leaf, as in the goosefoot.
WordNet
n. (botany) a covering that resembles scales or bran that covers some plant parts
a thin flake of dead epidermis shed from the surface of the skin [syn: scale, exfoliation]
Usage examples of "scurf".
Two dark parabolas in a field of yellow, slight 3-D interest provided by the scurf strewn about.
The house on the beach had been posted where it stood, one supposes, for the sake of the sea-view, from which it turned right about to face the town across a patch of grass and salt scurf, looking like a square and scornful corporal engaged in the perpetual review of an awkward squad of recruits.
Unfocused, undefined discomfort resolved into thirstdesert-parched mouth, mummified tongue, scurf like sandstone baked onto the teeth.
With its murky scurf and banked channels of glint and scum, it looks like washing-up, it looks like London skies.
The surf pounded the bluffs and boiled over the sunken ledges that ringed the island, leaving a scurf of foam that trailed like the wake of a boat.
A bank of heavy clouds lay in the east, where Skay floated: a great black ball on a scurf of foam.
There was a long and disgusting period when I had to scurf off the brown flakes of skin that were left behind by the fever.
There was always that measle on her forehead, of course, and always a gray scurf about her ankles and a darker gray curd between her toes.
The river was fuller than Yama remembered it, lapping at the margin of the city, covering the shore where in the near future there would be wide mud flats and a scurf of shanty towns.
No one could tell me how they had once piloted their deep ships and scurfed the windows of the manifold because no one remembered.
I do not know how long I spent, intime, scurfing the windows of the thickspace.
But as things were, there was a great deal of scurfing and scabbing, and the formation of cheese-like substances in folds of skin.
With his long matchstick he pressed aside the undergrowth of stiff grey hairs embellished with flakes of exfoliated scurf.
They let their sweat cake on their bodies, so it encrusted the other oils and scurfs that the body normally sheds in unnoticeable flakes.
The tall smokestack toppled with a ringing crash and a twanging of guy wires and a voluminous eructation of smuts, rust, scales and scurfs that enveloped the ship's entire upper works in a suffocating black cloud.