surge.
A sudden transient rush, flood or increase.
Meaning & usage
A sudden transient rush, flood or increase.
He felt a surge of excitement.
The maximum amplitude of a vehicle's forward/backward oscillation.
A sudden electrical spike or increase of voltage and current.
A power surge at that generator created a blackout across the whole district.
A momentary reversal of the airflow through the compressor section of a jet engine due to disruption of the airflow entering the engine's air intake, accompanied by loud banging noises, emission of flame, and temporary loss of thrust.
The swell or heave of the sea.
A deployment in large numbers at short notice.
The tapered part of a windlass barrel or a capstan, upon which the cable surges, or slips.
Where this word comes from
The verb is from Middle English ^((please verify)) surgen, possibly from Middle French sourgir, from Old French surgir (“to rise, ride near the shore, arrive, land”), from Old Catalan surgir, from Latin surgō, contraction of surrigō, subrigō (“lift up, raise, erect; intransitive rise, arise, get up, spring up, grow, etc.”, transitive verb), from sub (“from below; up”) + regō (“to stretch”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₃réǵeti (“to straighten; right”), from the root *h₃reǵ-; see regent. Doublet of source and sourd. The noun is from the verb.
To rush, flood, or increase suddenly.
Toaster sales surged last year.
To accelerate forwards, particularly suddenly.
A ship surges forwards, sways sideways and heaves up.
To experience a momentary reversal of airflow through the compressor section due to disruption of intake airflow.
Use of maximum reverse thrust at low speeds can cause the engine to surge from ingesting its own exhaust.
To slack off a line.
Where this word comes from
The verb is from Middle English ^((please verify)) surgen, possibly from Middle French sourgir, from Old French surgir (“to rise, ride near the shore, arrive, land”), from Old Catalan surgir, from Latin surgō, contraction of surrigō, subrigō (“lift up, raise, erect; intransitive rise, arise, get up, spring up, grow, etc.”, transitive verb), from sub (“from below; up”) + regō (“to stretch”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₃réǵeti (“to straighten; right”), from the root *h₃reǵ-; see regent. Doublet of source and sourd. The noun is from the verb.
A spring; a fountain.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English sourge, of uncertain origin. In the earliest examples, translating Old French sourgeon (modern French surgeon), from sourge- (which the Middle English term is probably from), the present stem of sourdre, from Latin surgō (“to rise”).
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.