terf

noun

1. A trans-exclusionary radical feminist; a radical feminist who does not consider trans women to be women, or thinks they should not be included in female spaces or organisations, and who considers trans men to be women; a person whose transphobia is expressed in feminist terms.

   “Dear “A Lesbian Democrat” Your TERF (trans-exclusionary radical feminist) agenda and what it represents is no better than the bigoted regressive agenda of the religious right.”

   “At the further extreme TERF’s^([sic]) actively promote the message that banning trans women from feminist gathering implies—that trans women are not really women at all.”

   “Perhaps the sheer nastiness of TERFs comes from the fact that they don’t just know they’ve lost; they know they were on the wrong side from the beginning.”

   “Although some TERFs attend the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival, none of my interviewees or other land-women have identified as a TERF, nor have any TERFs, to my knowledge, ever lived on women's land.”

   “The point here isn't that some TERFs aren’t XX and some Nazis aren’t “purely” white (an imaginary category); it’s that their bigotry rests on assumptions about biology and genetics which are scientifically lazy, as if you can “see” race and gender in a meaningful yet simplistic and binary way.”

2. (abbreviation, alt-of, countable, uncountable)Abbreviation of telomeric repeat-binding factor.

   “TERF1, TERF2”

   “[…] another protein, TERF2, binds at the 5'-terminus and fixes the telomere end at the tail. […] The figure schematically shows domain structure of TERF1. […] Interaction of this protein with nucleic acid requires polypeptide dimerization, which involves the TERF domain [12].”

3. (US, abbreviation, alt-of, countable, uncountable)Abbreviation of terrain flight (“flight close to the ground, to avoid enemy detection or fire”).

   “A MAWTS qualified TERF instructor is required for all TERF instructional sorties.”

   “[…] Typical TERF altitudes for Navy and Marine Corps helicopters include low level (approximately 100 ft AGL), contour (50 ft AGL), and nap of the earth (NOE) (less than 50 ft AGL). A depiction of typical TERF modes in presented in Figure 3.”

4. (alt-of, rare)Rare spelling of taraf.

   “For quotations using this term, see Citations:terf.”

5. (alt-of)Alternative letter-case form of TERF.