wave

wave [wāv]

vi.

waved, waving [ME waven < OE wafian, akin to Ger waben, to fluctuate < IE * webh-, to move to and fro, prob. identical with * webh-, to WEAVE]

1. to move up and down or back and forth in a curving or undulating motion; swing, sway, or flutter to and fro: said of flexible things free at one end [flags waving in the breeze]

2. to signal by moving a hand, arm, light, etc. to and fro

3. to have the form of a series of curves or undulations [hair that waves naturally]

vt.

1. to cause to wave, undulate, or sway to and fro

2. to swing or brandish (a weapon)

3.

a) to move or swing (something) as a signal; motion with (the hand, arms, etc.)

b) to signal (something) by doing this [to wave farewell]

c) to signal or signify something to (someone) by doing this [he waved us on]

4. to give an undulating form to; make sinuous [to wave one's hair]

n.

[altered (based on the v.) < ME wawe, a wave]

1. a ridge or swell moving along the surface of a liquid or body of water as a result of disturbance, as by wind

2.

a) an undulation or series of undulations in or on a surface, such as that caused by wind over a field of grain

b) a curve or series of curves or curls, as in the hair

c) an appearance of undulation, by reflection of light, on watered fabric

3. a motion to and fro or up and down, such as that made by the hand in signaling

4. something like a wave in action or effect; specif.,

a) an upsurge or rise, as to a crest, or a progressively swelling manifestation [a crime wave, heat wave, wave of emotion, etc.]

b) a movement of people, etc., in groups or masses, which recedes or grows smaller before subsiding or being followed by another [a wave of immigrants]

5. Old Poet. water; esp., the sea or other body of water

6. Physics a periodic motion or disturbance consisting of a series of many oscillations that propagate through a medium or space, as in the propagation of sound or light: the medium does not travel outward from the source with the wave but only vibrates as it passes

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make waves

to disturb the prevailing calm, complacency, etc.

waveless

adj.

wavelike

adj.

waver

n.

SYN.- WAVE is the general word for a curving ridge or swell in the surface of the ocean or other body of water; RIPPLE¹ is used of the smallest kind of wave, such as that caused by a breeze ruffling the surface of water; ROLLER is applied to any of the large, heavy, swelling waves that roll in to the shore, as during a storm; BREAKER¹ is applied to such a wave when it breaks, or is about to break, into foam upon the shore or upon rocks; BILLOW is a somewhat poetic or rhetorical term for a great, heaving ocean wave