Wave
Wave (wāv) , transitive verb
See Waive. — Sir H. Wotton
Wave , intransitive verb
[Old English waven, Anglo-Saxon wafian to waver, to hesitate, to wonder; akin to wafre wavering, restless, Middle High German wabern to be in motion, Icelandic vafra to hover about; compare Icelandic vāfa to vibrate. Compare 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.
Where the flags of three nations has successively waved.
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. [Obsolete]
He waved indifferently 'twixt doing them neither good nor harm.
Wave , transitive verb
1.
To move one way and the other; to brandish.
[Aeneas] waved his fatal sword.
2.
To raise into inequalities of surface; to give an undulating form a surface to.
Horns whelked and waved like the enridged sea.
3.
To move like a wave, or by floating; to waft. [Obsolete] — 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.
She spoke, and bowing waved
Dismissal.
Wave , noun
[From Wave, v.; not the same word as Old English wawe, waghe, a wave, which is akin to English wag to move. r138. See Wave, v. 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.
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.
Build a ship to save thee from the flood,
I 'll furnish thee with fresh wave, bread, and wine.
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.
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.
Collocations (10)
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 or 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 (Zoology) , 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 (Physics) , A surface of simultaneous and equal displacement of the particles composing a wave of vibration. 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.