Emily Dickinson Lexicon

SURGE, n. [L. surgo, to rise; Sans. surgo, highth.]

1. A large wave or billow; a great rolling swell of water. [It is not applied to small waves, and is chiefly used in poetry and eloquence.] He dies aloft, and with impetuous roar, / Pursues the foaming surges to the shore. – Dryden.
2. In shipbuilding, the tapered part in front of the whelps, between the chocks of a capstan, on which the messenger may surge. – Cyc.