'Wave' definitions:

Definition of 'wave'

(from WordNet)
noun
One of a series of ridges that moves across the surface of a liquid (especially across a large body of water) [syn: wave, moving ridge]
noun
A movement like that of a sudden occurrence or increase in a specified phenomenon; "a wave of settlers"; "troops advancing in waves"
noun
(physics) a movement up and down or back and forth [syn: wave, undulation]
noun
Something that rises rapidly; "a wave of emotion swept over him"; "there was a sudden wave of buying before the market closed"; "a wave of conservatism in the country led by the hard right"
noun
The act of signaling by a movement of the hand [syn: wave, waving, wafture]
noun
A hairdo that creates undulations in the hair
noun
An undulating curve [syn: wave, undulation]
noun
A persistent and widespread unusual weather condition (especially of unusual temperatures); "a heat wave"
noun
A member of the women's reserve of the United States Navy; originally organized during World War II but now no longer a separate branch
verb
Signal with the hands or nod; "She waved to her friends"; "He waved his hand hospitably" [syn: beckon, wave]
verb
Move or swing back and forth; "She waved her gun" [syn: brandish, flourish, wave]
verb
Move in a wavy pattern or with a rising and falling motion; "The curtains undulated"; "the waves rolled towards the beach" [syn: roll, undulate, flap, wave]
verb
Twist or roll into coils or ringlets; "curl my hair, please" [syn: curl, wave]
verb
Set waves in; "she asked the hairdresser to wave her hair"

Definition of 'Wave'

From: GCIDE
  • Wave \Wave\ (w[=a]v), v. t. See Waive. --Sir H. Wotton. --Burke. [1913 Webster]

Definition of 'Wave'

From: GCIDE
  • Wave \Wave\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Waved; p. pr. & vb. n. Waving.] [OE. waven, AS. wafian to waver, to hesitate, to wonder; akin to w[ae]fre wavering, restless, MHG. wabern to be in motion, Icel. vafra to hover about; cf. Icel. v[=a]fa to vibrate. Cf. Waft, Waver.] [1913 Webster]
  • 1. To play loosely; to move like a wave, one way and the other; to float; to flutter; to undulate. [1913 Webster]
  • His purple robes waved careless to the winds. --Trumbull. [1913 Webster]
  • Where the flags of three nations has successively waved. --Hawthorne. [1913 Webster]
  • 2. To be moved to and fro as a signal. --B. Jonson. [1913 Webster]
  • 3. To fluctuate; to waver; to be in an unsettled state; to vacillate. [Obs.] [1913 Webster]
  • He waved indifferently 'twixt doing them neither good nor harm. --Shak. [1913 Webster]

Definition of 'Wave'

From: GCIDE
  • Wave \Wave\, n. [From Wave, v.; not the same word as OE. wawe, waghe, a wave, which is akin to E. wag to move. [root]138. See Wave, v. i.] [1913 Webster]
  • 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. [1913 Webster]
  • The wave behind impels the wave before. --Pope. [1913 Webster]
  • 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. [1913 Webster]
  • 3. Water; a body of water. [Poetic] "Deep drank Lord Marmion of the wave." --Sir W. Scott. [1913 Webster]
  • Build a ship to save thee from the flood, I 'll furnish thee with fresh wave, bread, and wine. --Chapman. [1913 Webster]
  • 4. Unevenness; inequality of surface. --Sir I. Newton. [1913 Webster]
  • 5. A waving or undulating motion; a signal made with the hand, a flag, etc. [1913 Webster]
  • 6. The undulating line or streak of luster on cloth watered, or calendered, or on damask steel. [1913 Webster]
  • 7. Something resembling or likened to a water wave, as in rising unusually high, in being of unusual extent, or in progressive motion; a swelling or excitement, as of feeling or energy; a tide; flood; period of intensity, usual activity, or the like; as, a wave of enthusiasm; waves of applause. [Webster 1913 Suppl.]
  • 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. [1913 Webster]

Definition of 'Wave'

From: GCIDE
  • Wave \Wave\, v. t.
  • 1. To move one way and the other; to brandish. "[Aeneas] waved his fatal sword." --Dryden. [1913 Webster]
  • 2. To raise into inequalities of surface; to give an undulating form a surface to. [1913 Webster]
  • Horns whelked and waved like the enridged sea. --Shak. [1913 Webster]
  • 3. To move like a wave, or by floating; to waft. [Obs.] --Sir T. Browne. [1913 Webster]
  • 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. [1913 Webster]
  • Look, with what courteous action It waves you to a more removed ground. --Shak. [1913 Webster]
  • She spoke, and bowing waved Dismissal. --Tennyson. [1913 Webster]

Definition of 'wave'

From: GCIDE
  • Waive \Waive\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Waived; p. pr. & vb. n. Waiving.] [OE. waiven, weiven, to set aside, remove, OF. weyver, quesver, to waive, of Scand. origin; cf. Icel. veifa to wave, to vibrate, akin to Skr. vip to tremble. Cf. Vibrate, Waif.] [Written also wave.] [1913 Webster]
  • 1. To relinquish; to give up claim to; not to insist on or claim; to refuse; to forego. [1913 Webster]
  • He waiveth milk, and flesh, and all. --Chaucer. [1913 Webster]
  • We absolutely do renounce or waive our own opinions, absolutely yielding to the direction of others. --Barrow. [1913 Webster]
  • 2. To throw away; to cast off; to reject; to desert. [1913 Webster]
  • 3. (Law) (a) To throw away; to relinquish voluntarily, as a right which one may enforce if he chooses. (b) (O. Eng. Law) To desert; to abandon. --Burrill. [1913 Webster]
  • Note: The term was applied to a woman, in the same sense as outlaw to a man. A woman could not be outlawed, in the proper sense of the word, because, according to Bracton, she was never in law, that is, in a frankpledge or decennary; but she might be waived, and held as abandoned. --Burrill. [1913 Webster]

Synonyms of 'wave'

From: Moby Thesaurus

Words containing 'Wave'