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Webster 1913 Edition

Wave

Wave

(wāv)
,
Verb.
T.
See
Waive
.
Sir H. Wotton.
Burke.

Wave

,
Verb.
I.
[
imp. & p. p.
Waved
;
p. pr. & vb. n.
Waving
.]
[OE.
waven
, AS.
wafian
to waver, to hesitate, to wonder; akin to
wæfre
wavering, restless, MHG.
wabern
to be in motion, Icel.
vafra
to hover about; cf. Icel.
vāfa
to vibrate. Cf.
Waft
,
Waver
.]
1.
To play loosely; to move like a wave, one way and the other; to float; to flutter; to undulate.
His purple robes
waved
careless to the winds.
Trumbull.
Where the flags of three nations has successively
waved
.
Hawthorne.
2.
To be moved to and fro as a signal.
B. Jonson.
3.
To fluctuate; to waver; to be in an unsettled state; to vacillate.
[Obs.]
He
waved
indifferently ’twixt doing them neither good nor harm.
Shakespeare

Wave

,
Verb.
T.
1.
To move one way and the other; to brandish.
“[Aeneas] waved his fatal sword.”
Dryden.
2.
To raise into inequalities of surface; to give an undulating form a surface to.
Horns whelked and
waved
like the enridged sea.
Shakespeare
3.
To move like a wave, or by floating; to waft.
[Obs.]
Sir T. Browne.
4.
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.
Look, with what courteous action
It
waves
you to a more removed ground.
Shakespeare
She spoke, and bowing
waved

Dismissal.
Tennyson.

Wave

,
Noun.
[From
Wave
,
Verb.
; not the same word as OE.
wawe
,
waghe
, a wave, which is akin to E.
wag
to move. √138. See
Wave
,
Verb.
I.
]
1.
An advancing ridge or swell on the surface of a liquid, as of the sea, resulting from the oscillatory motion of the particles composing it when disturbed by any force their position of rest; an undulation.
The
wave
behind impels the
wave
before.
Pope.
2.
(Physics)
A vibration propagated from particle to particle through a body or elastic medium, as in the transmission of sound; an assemblage of vibrating molecules in all phases of a vibration, with no phase repeated; a wave of vibration; an undulation. See
Undulation
.
3.
Water; a body of water.
[Poetic]
“Deep drank Lord Marmion of the wave.”
Sir W. Scott.
Build a ship to save thee from the flood,
I 'll furnish thee with fresh
wave
, bread, and wine.
Chapman.
4.
Unevenness; inequality of surface.
Sir I. Newton.
5.
A waving or undulating motion; a signal made with the hand, a flag, etc.
6.
The undulating line or streak of luster on cloth watered, or calendered, or on damask steel.
Wave front
(Physics)
,
the surface of initial displacement of the particles in a medium, as a wave of vibration advances.
–
Wave length
(Physics)
,
the space, reckoned in the direction of propagation, occupied by a complete wave or undulation, as of light, sound, etc.; the distance from a point or phase in a wave to the nearest point at which the same phase occurs.
–
Wave line
(Shipbuilding)
,
a line of a vessel's hull, shaped in accordance with the wave-line system.
–
Wave-line system
,
Wave-line theory
(Shipbuilding)
,
a system or theory of designing the lines of a vessel, which takes into consideration the length and shape of a wave which travels at a certain speed.
–
Wave loaf
,
a loaf for a wave offering.
Lev. viii. 27.
–
Wave moth
(Zool.)
,
any one of numerous species of small geometrid moths belonging to
Acidalia
and allied genera; – so called from the wavelike color markings on the wings.
–
Wave offering
,
an offering made in the Jewish services by waving the object, as a loaf of bread, toward the four cardinal points.
Num. xviii. 11.
–
Wave of vibration
(Physics)
,
a wave which consists in, or is occasioned by, the production and transmission of a vibratory state from particle to particle through a body.
–
Wave surface
.
(a)
(Physics)
A surface of simultaneous and equal displacement of the particles composing a wave of vibration.
(b)
(Geom.)
A mathematical surface of the fourth order which, upon certain hypotheses, is the locus of a wave surface of light in the interior of crystals. It is used in explaining the phenomena of double refraction. See under
Refraction
.
–
Wave theory
.
(Physics)
See
Undulatory theory
, under
Undulatory
.

Webster 1828 Edition

Wave

WAVE

,
Noun.
[G.]
1.
A moving swell or volume of water; usually, a swell raised and driven by wind. A pebble thrown into still water produces waves, which form concentric circles, receding from the point where the pebble fell. But waves are generally raised and driven by wind, and the word comprehends any moving swell on the surface of water, from the smallest ripple to the billows of a tempest.
The wave behind impels the wave before.
2.
Unevenness; inequality of surface.
3.
The line or streak of luster on cloth watered and calendered.

WAVE

,
Verb.
I.
1.
To play loosely; to move like a wave, one way and the other; to float; to undulate.
His purple robes wavd careless to the wind.
2.
To be moved, as a signal.
3.
To fluctuate; to waver; to be in an unsettled state.

WAVE

,
Verb.
T.
[See Waver.]
1.
To raise into inequalities of surface.
2.
To move one way and the other; to brandish; as, to wave the hand; to wave a sword.
3.
To waft; to remove any thing floating.
4.
To beckon; to direct by a waft or waving motion.

WAVE

,
Verb.
T.
1.
To put off; to cast off; to cast away; to reject; as, to wave good stolen; usually written waive.
2.
To quit; to depart from.
He resolved not to wave his way.
3.
To put off; to put aside for the present, or to omit to pursue; as, to wave a motion. He offered to wave the subject. [This is the usual sense.]

Definition 2024

wave

wave

English

Verb

wave ‎(third-person singular simple present waves, present participle waving, simple past and past participle waved)

  1. (intransitive) To move back and forth repeatedly.
    The flag waved in the gentle breeze.‎
    • 2011 October 1, Tom Fordyce, “Rugby World Cup 2011: England 16-12 Scotland”, in BBC Sport:
      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 picked off to almost offer up a breakaway try.
  2. (intransitive) To wave one’s hand in greeting or departure.
    I waved goodbye from across the room.‎
  3. (intransitive) To have an undulating or wavy form.
  4. (transitive) To raise into inequalities of surface; to give an undulating form or surface to.
  5. (transitive) To produce waves to the hair.
    • 1977, Agatha Christie, An Autobiography, Part II, chapter4:
      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; […].
  6. (intransitive, baseball) To swing and miss at a pitch.
    Jones waves at strike one.‎
  7. (transitive) To cause to move back and forth repeatedly.
    The starter waved the flag to begin the race.‎
  8. (transitive) To signal (someone or something) with a waving movement.
  9. (intransitive, obsolete) To fluctuate; to waver; to be in an unsettled state.
    • William Shakespeare (c.1564–1616)
      He waved indifferently 'twixt doing them neither good nor harm.
  10. To move like a wave, or by floating; to waft.
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Sir Thomas Browne to this entry?)
  11. 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.
    • William Shakespeare (c.1564–1616)
      Look, with what courteous action / It waves you to a more removed ground.
    • Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892)
      She spoke, and bowing waved / Dismissal.
Derived terms
Translations

Etymology 2

The wave after a ferry (1)

From Middle English *wave, wawe, waghe ‎(“wave”), partially from waven ‎(“to fluctuate, wave”) (see above) and partially from Old English wǣg ‎(“a wave, billow, motion, water, flood, sea”), from Proto-Germanic *wēgaz ‎(“motion, storm, wave”), from Proto-Indo-European *weǵhe- ‎(“to drag, carry”). Cognate with North Frisian weage ‎(“wave, flood, sea”), German Woge ‎(“wave”), French vague ‎(“wave”) (from Germanic), Gothic 𐍅𐌴𐌲𐍃 ‎(wēgs, “a wave”). See also waw.

Noun

wave ‎(plural waves)

  1. A moving disturbance in the level of a body of water; an undulation.
    The wave traveled from the center of the lake before breaking on the shore.
  2. (physics) A moving disturbance in the energy level of a field.
    Gravity waves, while predicted by theory for decades, have been notoriously difficult to detect.
  3. A shape that alternatingly curves in opposite directions.
    Her hair had a nice wave to it.
    sine wave
  4. (figuratively) A sudden unusually large amount of something that is temporarily experienced.
    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.
    • 2011 January 11, Jonathan Stevenson, “West Ham 2 - 1 Birmingham”, in BBC:
      Foster had been left unsighted by Scott Dann's positioning at his post, but the goalkeeper was about to prove his worth to Birmingham by keeping them in the game with a series of stunning saves as West Ham produced waves after wave of attack in their bid to find a crucial second goal.
  5. A sideway movement of the hand(s).
    With a wave of the hand.
  6. 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. Usually referred to as "the wave"
Synonyms
  • (an undulation): und (obsolete, rare)
  • (group activity): Mexican wave (chiefly Commonwealth)
Hyponyms
Derived terms
Translations

Etymology 3

See waive.

Verb

wave ‎(third-person singular simple present waves, present participle waving, simple past and past participle waved)

  1. Obsolete spelling of waive

Etymology

From Middle English waven, from Old English wafian ‎(“to wave, fluctuate, waver in mind, wonder”), 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”), Icelandic váfa ‎(“to fluctuate, waver, doubt”). See also waver.

Pronunciation

  • enPR: wāv, IPA(key): /weɪv/
  • Homophone: waive
  • Rhymes: -eɪv

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