wave
verb
- to move through the air with a sweeping gesture
- movement (literally or as in an increase of a specific phenomenon)
- to signal (a person) or move back and forth, cause waving movement
- give directions via waving
noun
- oscillatory motion
- wind-driven oscillations in water
- stadium audience activity
- hand gesture
- movement (literally or as in an increase of a specific phenomenon)
- to signal (a person) or move back and forth, cause waving movement
- natural disaster: tidal wave
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /weɪv/ / /wɛjv/ / /wæɪv/
noun
Etymology: 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.
- 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?”
- 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 mould.”
“Whoever rules the waves rules the world...”
- 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 "superantennas" that can concentrate light and other electromagnetic waves to make laser-like beams.”
- A shape that alternatingly curves in opposite directions.
“Her hair had a nice wave to it.”
“sine wave”
- Any of a number of species of moths in the geometrid subfamily Sterrhinae, which have wavy markings on the wings.
- A loose back-and-forth movement, as of the hands.
“He dismissed her with a wave of the hand.”
- 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.”
- Any of a series of orders to be fulfilled in one short interval of time, planned as part of wave picking.
- A movement or trend in popular culture.
“New Wave”
“Korean Wave”
- 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.”
- 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.
verb
Etymology: See waive.
- 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.”