turf
n. C / Un. an area of land or a subject that someone considers their own territory. You use this when someone is very protective of their space or their job.
n. an area of territory, expertise, or influence claimed by a specific person or group. Informal in register; often used to describe competitive environments or professional jurisdictions.
The local gang is very protective of their turf.
The marketing department felt the new sales strategy was an invasion of their turf.
While the two companies initially collaborated on the project, they soon began to argue over their respective turf, leading to a breakdown in communication and a delay in the product launch.
From Middle English turf, torf, from Old English turf (“turf, sod, soil, piece of grass-covered earth, greensward”), from Proto-West Germanic turb (“turf, peat”), from Proto-Germanic turbz (“turf, lawn”), from Proto-Indo-European *derbʰ- (“tuft, grass”). Cognates Cognate with Scots turr, truff (“turf, peat”), Dutch turf (“turf”), Middle Low German torf (“peat, turf”) (whence German Torf and German Low German Torf), Danish tørv (“peat”), Faroese, Icelandic, Norwegian, and Swedish torv (“turf”), Norn *torv (“peat”), French tourbe (“peat”), Finnish turve (“turf”), Lithuanian darbas (“bunch of leaves”), durpės (“peat”), Sanskrit दर्भ (darbhá, “a type of grass”), दूर्वा (dū́rvā, “bent grass”). Not cognate with Danish torv (“square, market, marketplace”), which is instead inherited from Old Norse torg (“marketplace”), from Old East Slavic търгъ (tŭrgŭ, “trade, trading, commerce, trade square”), ultimately from Proto-Slavic *tъ̑rgъ (“merchandise, commodity, wares”).
Uncountable when referring to grass or peat; countable when referring to a specific territory or area of expertise.