The overside or upside of a flat object such as a table, or of a liquid.
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: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:
Use the lowest light level required. Be mindful of surface conditions, as some surfaces may reflect more light into the night sky than was intended.2020 June 1, DarkSky International, Five Principles for Responsible Outdoor Lighting:
3
The outside hull of a tangible object.
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:
On the surface, the spy looked like a typical businessman.
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: […], 4th edition, London: Charles Dilly […], pages 393–394:
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“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, →OCLC:
5
Geometry, Mathematics, Sciences The locus of an equation (especially one with exactly two degrees of freedom) in a space of more than two dimensions.
6
The story or image suggested by a cryptic clue, when read as a whole sentence without considering wordplay.
The surface is clearly about people like you and me, those whose better days are behind us and who now shop at M&S.2010 May 3, Sandy Balfour, “Beginner's guide to solving cryptic crosswords”, in The Guardian:
If you are fooled by the surface you start thinking about internet browsers. But in this case it deviously refers to an animal that feeds by browsing, which is a longer standing use of the word.2018 December 7, Bryan Lawson, The Design Student's Journey: understanding How Designers Think, Routledge, →ISBN:
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This clue with a booze-related surface uses “sandwich” wordplay, with an insertion of P from “priceless” into “lean to”, which the Oxford Dictionary of English lists as an alternative to “lean towards”, meaning the same as “incline to”.2024 June 4, Peter Biddlecombe, “Sunday Times clue writing contest 2020: Lepanto”, in Sunday Times:
There was great relief when the missing diver finally surfaced.
3
To bring to the surface.
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:
The company believes the stolen chocolate bars could surface through unofficial sales channels across European markets.2026 March 29, “Someone stole 413,793 KitKat bars and an entire truck in Europe”, in syracuse.com:
5
Of information To become known or apparent; to appear or be found; to come to light.
Facts; content; etc; facts; content; etc
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, →DOI:
They're not growing. Why would I surface them to new people? [...That] makes our video surface less, and that makes the next video surface less.2024 May 24, Keith Habersberger, "The Try Guys Tell All" (video on Anthony Padilla's YouTube channel), 5:20
6
To make (information, facts, content, etc) known.
They're not growing. Why would I surface them to new people? [...That] makes our video surface less, and that makes the next video surface less.2024 May 24, Keith Habersberger, "The Try Guys Tell All" (video on Anthony Padilla's YouTube channel), 5:20