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A tract of poor, sandy, undulating or hilly land near the sea, covered with fine turf which serves chiefly for the grazing of sheep; -- usually in the plural. [Eng.] Seven thousand broad-tailed sheep grazed on his downs. Sandys.

A breastplow used in paring off turf on downs. [Eng.] Knight.

Heuce, any minute play of light andshade, dark and light, or the like. Banqueting on the turf in the fretwork of shade and sunshine. Macaulay.

Turf; soil; ground; sod. Fertile of corn the glebe, of oil, and wine. Milton.

Pertaining to the glebe; turfy; cloddy; fertile; fruitful. "Gleby land." Prior.

To cover with grass or with turf.

Turf green with grass.

A quagmire; mossy ground where peat or turf has been cut. Dugdale.

ard, as a tower or mound. And the huge columns heave into the sky. Pope. Where heaves the turf in many a moldering heap. Gray. The heaving sods of Bunker Hill. E. Everett.

ightly; to press lightly. Yet shall thy grave with rising flowers be drest, And the green turf lie lightly on thy breast. Pope. Him thus intent Ithuriel with his spear Touched lightly. Milton.

f the nature of a myth; fabulous; imaginary; fanciful. -- Myth"ic*al*ly, adv. The mythic turf where danced the nymphs. Mrs. Browning. Hengist and Horsa, Vortigern and Rowena, Arthur and Mordred, are mythical persons, whose very existence may be questioned. Macaulay.

by little at a time; to seize gently with the mouth; to eat slowly or in small bits. Thy turfy mountains, where live nibbling sheep. Shak.

t of beds or plots, in which flowers are cultivated, with intervening spaces of gravel or turf for walking on.

roots and fibers, moss, etc., in various stages of decomposition, and found, as a kind of turf or bog, usually in low situations, where it is always more or less saturated with water. It is often dried and used for fuel. Peat bog, a bog containing peat; also, peat as it occurs in such places; peat moss. -- Peat moss.…

re, or as by pressure. Forth on his fiery steed betimes he rode, That scarcely prints the turf on which he trod. Dryden.

The green, or plot of smooth turf, surrounding a hole. "The term putting green shall mean the ground within twenty yards of the hole, excepting hazards." Golf Rules.

A square piece of turf or peat. [Prov. Eng.]

A turf. [Obs.] Swift.

face of the soil which is filled with the roots of grass, or any portion of that surface; turf; sward. She there shall dress a sweeter sod Than Fancy's feet have ever trod. Collins.

Consisting of sod; covered with sod; turfy. Cotgrave.