سرف

He was ignorant; or he was unmindful, negligent, or heedless.. In these senses it is transitive.

Said of a thing.. In some of the sources only the maṣdar of the verb in this sense is mentioned, explained as synonymous with خَطَأٌ. Synonymous with أَخْطَأَهُ.

As is related of an Arab of the desert: some companions of his made an appointment to meet him in a certain place in the mosque, and he broke his promise; when asked about it, he said this.

And hence the saying of Jereer, praising the Benoo-Umeiyeh: [They gave a hundred camels, eight persons driving them, or urging them by singing to them: there was not in their gift reproach for a benefit conferred, nor] unmindfulness.

Or the meaning is, nor missing; that is, they did not miss the proper place of the gift by giving it to those who did not deserve it and refusing it to the deserving.

Said of the سُرْفَة [q. v.]..

Likewise said of the سُرْفَة.

. Eaten by the سُرْفَة, or smitten, or lighted on, by the سُرْفَة.

Eaten by the سُرْفَة. The verb in this phrase is quasi-passive of the verb in the phrase سَرَفَتِ السُّرْفَةُ الخَشَبّ, just as حَطِمَ and صَعِقَ are quasi-passives of the verbs in the phrases حَطَمَتْهُ السِّنُّ and صَعَقَتْهُ السَّمَآءُ.

As though smitten, or lighted on, by the سُرْفَة.

He exceeded, or went beyond, the just bound, limit, or measure; he acted extravagantly or immoderately..

Or إِسْرَافٌ means being extravagant in expenditure, synonymous with تَبْذِيرٌ; or so إِسْرَافٌ فِى النَّفَقَةِ.

Or, as some say, تبذير means exceeding in respect of the right objects of expenditure, which is ignorance of the [right] manner and of the things that should prevent it; and اسراف means exceeding with respect to quantity in expenditure, which is ignorance of the values of the right objects. MF, in the article بذر.

Or the latter means expending otherwise than in obedience to God, whether little or much (Sufyán); and so does سَرَفٌ. It is also said to mean eating what it is not lawful to eat, and this is said to be the meaning in Qur'ān 6:142 or 7:29; and putting a thing in a wrong place, as when one spends his money on a wrong object. According to Iyás Ibn-Moʿáwiyeh, الإِسْرَافُ is that action by which one falls short of what is due to God.

That is, in expending it, without following a just course or keeping within due bounds.

Of الإِسْرَافُ فِى القَتْلِ, which is forbidden in Qur'ān 17:35, it is said to mean: the slaying of another than the slayer of one's companion; or the slaying of the slayer without the authority of the Sultan; or not being content with slaying one, but slaying a number of persons, because of the high rank of the slain and the low condition of the slayer; or the slaying of one higher in rank than the slayer; or the slaying of two when the slayer is one; or maiming or mutilating [before slaughter].

He sucked; and he ate, gnawed, or devoured. Apparently from سُرْفَةٌ [q. v.]; see also سَرَفَتِ الشَّجَرَةَ and the like, in the latter half of the first paragraph.

Maṣdar of سَرِفَ [q. v.].

Ignorant, as also مُسْرِفٌ; or unmindful, negligent, or heedless.

According to Z, from سَرَفَتِ السُّرْفَةُ الخَشَبَ, of which the quasi-passive is سَرِفَ [q. v.; meaning that it is from سَرِفٌ as an ism fāʿil of this latter verb].

Ibn-ʿAbbād: a certain white thing, or substance, resembling the web of the silkworm.

A worm, or caterpillar, or small creeping thing: a small creeping thing that makes for itself a four-sided habitation of fragments of wood, joining them together with its spittle, in the form of a نَاؤُوس [here meaning coffin], which it then enters, and dies in.

Or the silkworm.

Or a certain small dust-coloured creeping thing that builds a beautiful habitation in which it lives.

Or a very small creeping thing, like half a lentil, that bores into a tree and then builds inside it a habitation of pieces of wood, joined together by something like a spider's web.

Or a very small dust-coloured creeping thing that comes to a piece of wood and hollows it out, then brings a bit of wood and puts it inside, then another, then another, and then weaves something like a spider's web.

Or, according to AHn, a certain small creeping thing, like the worm, tending somewhat to blackness, found on the plants called حَمْض, which builds a four-sided habitation of pieces of wood, joining their ends together with something resembling a spider's web.

Or the caterpillar that weaves a web on certain trees, and eats their leaves, and destroys the rest of them by that weaving.

Or a certain caterpillar like the finger, hairy, speckled with black or white, that eats the leaves of trees so as to leave them bare.

Or a certain caterpillar that weaves round itself, of the size of the finger in length, something like the قِرْطَاس [or roll, or scroll, of paper], which it enters, so becoming unattainable.

Or a certain light, small creeping thing, like a spider.

Plural سُرَفٌ.

Hence the proverb أَصْنَعُ مِنْ سُرْفَةٍ [More skilled in fabricating than a سُرْفَة]. One also says أَخَفُّ مِنْ سُرْفَةٍ [Lighter than a سُرْفَة].

According to Freytag, who has not named his authority: the eating away of a tree by wood-fretters. By “teredines” he means سُرَف, plural of سُرْفَةٌ.

Hard, severe, or difficult; great, momentous, or formidable. An adjective applied to a day.

A row of grape-vines.

See إِسْرَافِيلُ below.

The same as آنُكٌ [i. e. lead, or black lead, or tin, or pewter]; of Persian origin, arabicized, from سُرُبْ or أُسْرُبْ. [See also أُسْرُبٌ.]

El-Kanánee used to say سَرَافِيلُ.

The name of a certain angel. M mentions it among quadriliteral-radical words, but says there that the إ may be radical.

The angel who is to blow the horn on the day of resurrection. [See رُوحَانِىٌّ.]

A foreign word prefixed, or as though prefixed, to إِيلُ.

إِسْرَافِينُ is a dialectal variant of the same, as they also said جَبْرِينُ, إِسْمَاعِينُ, and إِسْرَائِينُ.

[Exceeding, or going beyond, the just bound, limit, or measure; acting extravagantly, and the like: see its verb, Form 4.]

Eaten by the سُرْفَة [q. v.].

Eaten by the سُرْفَة, or smitten, or lighted on, by the سُرْفَة.