couch surf
intransitive verb
variants:
or less commonly couch-surf
couch surfed
also couch-surfed;
couch surfing
also couch-surfing;
couch surfs
also couch-surfs
Definition of couch surf
1a
: to stay overnight with a series of hosts who typically provide basic accommodations (such as a couch to sleep on) at no cost
It is hard to figure out just how many people … experience a period of homelessness in their lifetime. There are families doubled up with other families, unaccompanied youth couch surfing and chronically homeless people tucked away in the most discreet corners of the city.— Ashleigh Eubanks, Beat of the Street, March 2013 Precise numbers for the homeless youth population are not known because young people are highly mobile and many couch-surf among relatives and friends, stay out on the streets or return home.— Mireya Navarro, The New York Times, 27 Mar. 2015
b
: to stay for free with a local host or series of hosts while traveling
She said that she first couch-surfed four years ago, as a broke college student eager to see Austria but not without a companion.— Patricia Marx, The New Yorker, 16 Apr. 2012 My friend Doc and I embarked on a two-month poetry tour, performing in bars and coffeeshops as we couch surfed up and down the east coast and throughout the Midwest.— Lindsay King-Miller, The Huffington Post, 19 Mar. 2015
2
: to spend time on a couch watching television
The commercials are colorful and full of happy and healthy people. Exercise and you can have a treat, the commercials say. Couch surf all day and perhaps a salad and a water are better choices. — Carin Lane, The Times Union (Albany, New York), 7 Apr. 2015
Keep scrolling for more