undulate
Wavy in appearance or form.
Adjective
- Wavy in appearance or form.
- Changing the pitch and volume of one's voice.
- sinuous, winding up and down.
Origin
Borrowed from Late Latin undulātus (“undulated”), see -ate (adjective-forming suffix).
Forms
Verb
- To cause to move in a wavelike motion.
- Breath vocalized, i.e., vibrated and undulated. - 1669, William Holder, Elements of Speech: An Essay of Inquiry into the Natural Production of Letters: […], London: […] T. N[ewcomb] for J[ohn] Martyn printer to the...
- To cause to resemble a wave.
- To move in wavelike motions.
- His tongue undulated.
- Come lovely and soothing death, / Undulate round the world, serenely arriving, arriving, / In the day, in the night, to all, to each, / Sooner or later delicate death. - 1865, Walt Whitman, “When Lilacs Last in the...
- To appear wavelike.
Origin
First attested in 1664; borrowed from New Latin undulātus, the perfect passive participle of undulō (see -ate (verb-forming suffix)), from an unattested *undula (“small wave”), diminutive of Latin unda (“wave”).