wave

A moving disturbance in the level of a body of liquid; an undulation.

Noun

  1. A moving disturbance in the level of a body of liquid; an undulation.
    • The wave traveled from the center of the lake before breaking on the shore.
    • O God! can I not save / One from the pitiless wave? / Is all that we see or seem / But a dream within a dream? - 1849 March 31, Edgar Allan Poe, “A Dream Within a Dream”, in The Works of the Late Edgar Allan Poe: […],...
    • A wave simulator in the tank can re-enact tsunamis and northeasters, and imitate wave conditions from midocean. - 2007 February 20, Tina Kelley, “A Wet Wind Tunnel So Ships Can Move Faster and Better”, in The New York...
  2. The ocean.
    • 1895, Fiona Macleod (William Sharp), The Sin-Eater and Other Tales […] your father Murtagh Ross, and his lawful childless wife, Dionaid, and his sister Anna—one and all, they lie beneath the green wave or in the brown...
    • Whoever rules the waves rules the world... - 2024 January 14, Kim Darroch, “Whoever rules the waves rules the world... The Red Sea crisis will show us if that’s true”, in The Observer:
  3. A moving disturbance in the energy level of a field.
    • Gravity waves, while predicted by theory for decades, have been notoriously difficult to detect.
    • Beyond military applications, cloaking devices are drawing interest from telecommunications companies, who see them as a way to send information by light more efficiently. One idea is to use the new materials to build...
  4. A shape that alternatingly curves in opposite directions.
    • Her hair had a nice wave to it.
    • sine wave
  5. Any of a number of species of moths in the geometrid subfamily Sterrhinae, which have wavy markings on the wings.
  6. A loose back-and-forth movement, as of the hands.
    • He dismissed her with a wave of the hand.
  7. A sudden, but temporary, uptick in something.
    • A wave of shoppers stampeded through the door when the store opened for its Christmas discount special.
    • A wave of retirees began moving to the coastal area.
    • A wave of emotion overcame her when she thought about her son who was killed in battle.

    Synonyms: rush

  8. Any of a series of orders to be fulfilled in one short interval of time, planned as part of wave picking.
  9. A movement or trend in popular culture.
    • New Wave
    • Korean Wave
  10. One of the successive swarms of enemies sent to attack the player in certain games.
    • As the player eliminates each wave of 55 aliens, the next wave begins lower than the one previous. - 2011, Raffaele Cecco, Supercharged JavaScript Graphics: With HTML5 Canvas and jQuery:
  11. A group activity in a crowd imitating a wave going through water, where people in successive parts of the crowd stand and stretch upward, then sit.

Origin

From Middle English *wave, partially from waven (“to fluctuate, wave”) (see above) and partially from Middle English wawe, waghe (“wave”), from Old English wǣg (“a wave, billow, motion, water, flood, sea”), from Proto-Germanic *wēgaz (“motion, storm, wave”), from Proto-Indo-European *weǵʰ- (“to drag, carry”). Cognates Cognate with North Frisian waag (“wave”), West Frisian weach (“wave”), Dutch waag (“wave”), German Woge, Wooge (“wave”), Danish vove, våg (“wave”), Faroese vágur (“bay”), Icelandic vogur (“bay”), Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk and Swedish våg (“wave”), Gothic 𐍅𐌴𐌲𐍃 (wēgs, “wave”), French vague (“wave”) (from Old Norse vágr (“ocean, sea; wave”)). See also waw.

Forms

waves

Synonyms

und Mexican wave

Hyponyms

Alfvén wave A wave blue wave carrier wave cosine wave electromagnetic wave Elliott wave episodic wave gamma wave gravitational wave gravity-inertia wave gravity wave groundwave ground wave handwave hand wave harmonic wave human wave incident wave Kelvin wave Langmuir wave light wave longitudinal wave longwave

Derived

æther wave aether wave afterwave airwave Alfven wave Alfvén wave alpha wave audience wave autowave awave Bangemann wave beta wave bewave blastwave Bloch wave blow-wave body wave bow wave brain wave brainwave capillary wave catch a wave charge-density wave coldwave

Verb Entry 2

  1. To move back and forth repeatedly and somewhat loosely.
    • The flag waved in the gentle breeze.
    • But the World Cup winning veteran's left boot was awry again, the attempt sliced horribly wide of the left upright, and the saltires were waving aloft again a moment later when a long pass in the England midfield was...
  2. To move one's hand back and forth (generally above the shoulders) in greeting or departure.
    • I raised my arms in a final salute. I smiled. I waved goodbye. I turned into the helicopter, the door was closed, the red carpet was rolled up. - 1978, Richard Nixon, RN: the Memoirs of Richard Nixon, Grosset & Dunlap,...
  3. To call attention to, or give a direction or command to, by a waving motion, as of the hand; to signify by waving; to beckon; to signal; to indicate.
    • I waved goodbye from across the room.
    • Look, with what courteous action / It waves you to a more removed ground. - c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies,...
    • She spoke, and bowing waved / Dismissal. - 1847, Alfred Tennyson, “Part 2”, in The Princess: A Medley, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC:
  4. To have an undulating or wavy form.
  5. To raise into inequalities of surface; to give an undulating form or surface to.
    • horns whelked and waved like the enridged sea - c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard,...
  6. To style (the hair) so as to produce a wavy texture.
    • There was also hairdressing: hairdressing, too, really was hairdressing in those times — no running a comb through it and that was that. It was curled, frizzed, waved, put in curlers overnight, waved with hot tongs;[…]....
  7. To swing and miss at a pitch.
    • Jones waves at strike one.
  8. To cause to move back and forth repeatedly.
    • The starter waved the flag to begin the race.
    • His father has waved bills in front of face and said to him — see what you've cost me. - 1977 August 13, Pala Bennett, Mary Jo Risher, “"I'm A Mother, And I'm A Good One."”, in Gay Community News, volume 5, number 6,...
  9. To signal (someone or something) with a waving movement.
  10. To fluctuate; to waver; to be in an unsettled state.
    • He waved indifferently 'twixt doing them neither good nor harm. - c. 1608–1609 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First...
  11. To move like a wave, or by floating; to waft.
    • But in the last, this dotted line, by the twisting as well as the bending of the horn, is changed from the waving into the serpentine line - 1803, William Hogarth, Anecdotes of Mr. Hogarth: And Explanatory Descriptions...
    • the flowers will not bloom less brightly, nor the grass be less green and fresh because it is waving over the head of one who loved to look upon their tender beauty while living. - 1850, Pierce Egan, Robin Hood and...
    • The cypresslike ferns were not waving over these, as they waved over the corals in the wood, but the little spleenwort, called Wall-rue, was resolved that their tomb should not be without verdure. - 1851, Margaret...

Origin

From Middle English waven, from Old English wafian (“to wave, fluctuate, waver in mind, wonder”), from Proto-West Germanic *wabōn, from Proto-Germanic *wabōną, *wabjaną (“to wander, sway”), from Proto-Indo-European *webʰ- (“to move to and from, wander”). Cognate with Middle High German waben (“to wave”), German wabern (“to waft”), Icelandic váfa (“to fluctuate, waver, doubt”). See also waver.

Forms

waves waving waved

Hyponyms

wave off

Derived

wave aside wave away wave down wave goodbye wave in waver wave the bloody shirt wave the white flag wave through

Verb Entry 3

  1. To generate a wave.
    • If the electron had wavelike properties, then what was disturbing the medium in which the wave existed? What was waving? - 2021, Michio Kaku, The God Equation:

Forms

waves waving waved

Verb alt of, obsolete

  1. Obsolete spelling of waive.
    • Ladies and gentlemen—I am ordered by Miss Woodhouse to say, that she waves her right of knowing exactly what you may all be thinking of, and only requires something very entertaining from each of you, in a general way....

Origin

See waive.

Forms

waves waving waved