Quranic root
جرف
j · r · f
The root centers on taking something away wholly or in large part, especially by sweeping, scraping, or scooping.
This basic idea extends to land eroded by water, torrents that carry things away, destructive forces, and figurative descriptions of voraciousness or loss.
- Maqāyīs · row 1136
- Mufradāt · row 244
- 1
- Quran-attested forms
- 1
- Quran senses
- 1
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
جُرُفٌ
jurufun
- Part of speech
- Noun
- Quran occurrences
- 1 occurrence
Selected examples are shown with the sense they illustrate — chosen to teach that sense, not the complete list of this form’s Quran occurrences.
An abrupt bank or ridge beside a valley or watercourse whose lower part has been eaten away by water, leaving it hollowed, undermined, and liable to collapse.
In the Quranic construction على شفا جرف هار, it denotes the unstable, eroded bank at whose edge something is situated.
- Lane · entry 46555
- Mufradāt · row 244
Selected Quran examples
Quran 9:109word 16
“(of) a cliff”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 9:109جُرُفٍ(of) a cliff
Broader Classical Arabic meanings
Recorded for this root in the Classical lexicons beyond its Quran usage. These are secondary to the Quran senses above.
Show 21 Classical meanings
جَرَفَ
To carry away, remove, or sweep away the whole of something, or much of it; of torrents, to erode or carry away land, and figuratively, to destroy people or livestock.
Used for physical removal and for a sweeping destructive force.
- Lane · entry 46548
جَرَفَ
To scoop, shovel, or sweep away dry material such as flour or sand.
A use involving removal with the hands or a scooping action.
- Lane · entry 46548
جُرِفَ
To be eaten up or consumed utterly, especially of herbage.
Passive usage describing complete consumption of vegetation.
- Lane · entry 46548
جَرَّفَ
To destroy or exterminate someone’s property or livestock and reduce the person to poverty.
Especially said of time, fortune, misfortune, or calamities acting destructively.
- Lane · entry 46549
أَجْرَفَ
Of a place, to be invaded or overwhelmed by a torrent.
The construction describes the place affected by the torrent.
- Lane · entry 46550
جُرْفٌ
A smooth side or face of a mountain.
- Lane · entry 46553
جُرَافٌ
A torrent that carries away everything in its path; by extension, rain of such overwhelming copiousness.
- Lane · entry 46556
جُرَافٌ
A voracious person who devours food and leaves nothing remaining.
Figurative usage based on the sweeping action of a torrent.
- Lane · entry 46556
جُرَافٌ
A man who marries much or often and is brisk, lively, or active.
Figurative usage.
- Lane · entry 46556
جُرَافٌ
A sword that sweeps away everything.
Figurative description of the sword’s destructive effectiveness.
- Lane · entry 46556
جُرَافٌ
A large measure of capacity.
A conventional measure term.
- Lane · entry 46556
جَرُوفٌ
A capacious bucket.
- Lane · entry 46558
جَارِفٌ
A widespread destructive force, especially a prevailing death or plague that sweeps away people or livestock; also an affliction or evil fortune that destroys a people or their livestock.
Figurative usage presenting calamity as a sweeping torrent.
- Lane · entry 46560
جَوْرَفٌ
A swift animal, especially a fast horse or ass.
The reported application to a male ostrich is identified in the evidence as a mistranscription of another word.
- Lane · entry 46561
جَارُوفٌ
Greedy or possessed of an excessive appetite for food.
Figurative usage.
- Lane · entry 46562
جَارُوفٌ
An unfortunate man.
Figurative usage.
- Lane · entry 46562
مِجْرَفٌ
Fingers or fingertips that take a great deal of food.
A figurative description of grasping or consuming much food.
- Lane · entry 46563
مِجْرَفَةٌ
A broom or implement for sweeping mud from the ground; also a shovel, hoe, or rake.
The implement sense includes later or colloquial applications to tools used for scraping, digging, or dragging material.
- Lane · entry 46564
مُجَرَّفٌ
A man whose property or livestock has been destroyed or exterminated and who has consequently been reduced to poverty.
A passive-participial description of the result of destructive time, fortune, or misfortune.
- Lane · entry 46565
مُجَرِّفٌ
Lean or emaciated.
A description of bodily depletion.
- Lane · entry 46566
مُتَجَرِّفٌ
Having lost its general fatness; lean or emaciated.
Applied in the evidence to a ram, a camel, or a person.
- Lane · entry 46567