Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To disable (a computer network) with a smurf attack.
  • intransitive verb To engage in a smurf attack.
  • intransitive verb Slang To buy as much pseudoephedrine as is legally permitted in each of numerous stores over a wide area in order to obtain enough to produce methamphetamine.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A fictional character, a blue pixie with white stocking cap, from the media franchise The Smurfs.
  • verb banking To structure a deposit; to split a large financial transaction into smaller ones so as to avoid scrutiny.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Sense 1, after the smurf, exploit program used to make smurf attacks in the late 1990s. Both senses ultimately after the Smurfs, a race of very small blue gnomelike creatures in comic strips by Belgian comic strip artist Pierre Culliford, later featured in a popular television series.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From De Smurfen, Dutch (Flemish) translation of Les Schtroumpfs (1958) by Pierre Culliford, in Le Journal de Spirou (Dutch: Robbedoes).

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Examples

  • For example, when a character says he's "up Smurf Creek without a paddle," the word "smurf" is either an adjective or proper noun.

    SFGate: Top News Stories Peter Hartlaub 2011

  • For example, when a character says he's "up Smurf Creek without a paddle," the word "smurf" is either an adjective or proper noun.

    SFGate: Top News Stories Chronic phartlaub@sfchronicle.com (Peter Hartlaub 2011

  • Douglas Adams: “…award for the most gratuitous use of the word smurf in a serious screenplay.”

    Cheeseburger Gothic » Barack Obama is tired of your motherfucking shit. 2009

  • Anonymous said ... paw-dancin 'smurf, Smurf-Blue Teva-Smurf, bracelet-making smurf, loose-neck smurf, searchin' for lost shaker of salt smurf ....

    Pop Quiz: Fest-rogen Edition Slimbolala 2006

  • Investigators and computer-security experts aren't certain how the attacks were carried out, but the hackers likely used a variation of a so-called smurf assault like this: 1.

    Mission: Total Overload 2008

  • We were issued this massive pile of crap and given our first uniform, a navy blue sweatsuit, fondly known as the smurf suit on base.

    toastcrumbs Diary Entry toastcrumbs 2005

  • Heck ... even a list of quiz results telling me what kind of smurf I am, what lord of the rings character I most resemble or how aberrant I am, isnt completely out of question ...

    poontang Diary Entry poontang 2009

  • It reminds me of the Smurfs, when they would insert "smurf" into normal words.

    I Wanna Be a Wreck Star 2009

  • A device called a step frequency microwave radiometer, or "smurf," measures wind speeds on the surface of the ocean.

    Into the Eye 2008

  • When overused, they begin to take on the quality of the word "smurf" in those old Smurf cartoons, just all-purpose expressions that make the language less varied.

    Archive 2007-05-01 Kylopod 2007

Comments

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  • Yei! Trippy cartoons!

    March 6, 2009