wave
Forms
- present (v1)
- wave
- past (v2)
- waved
- past participle (v3)
- waved
- present participle
- waving
- 3rd person singular
- waves
- Plural
- waves
Definitions
1.To move back and forth repeatedly and somewhat loosely.
- The flag waved in the gentle breeze.
2.To move one's hand back and forth (generally above the shoulders) in greeting or departure.
- I raised my arms in a final salute. I smiled. I waved goodbye. I turned into the helicopter, the door was closed, the red carpet was rolled up.
3.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.
- I waved goodbye from across the room.
- She spoke, and bowing waved / Dismissal.
- Look, with what courteous action / It waves you to a more removed ground.
4.To have an undulating or wavy form.
1.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.
- A wave simulator in the tank can re-enact tsunamis and northeasters, and imitate wave conditions from midocean.
- O God! can I not save / One from the pitiless wave? / Is all that we see or seem / But a dream within a dream?
2.The ocean.
- Whoever rules the waves rules the world..
3.A moving disturbance in the energy level of a field.
- Gravity waves, while predicted by theory for decades, have been notoriously difficult to detect.
4.A shape that alternatingly curves in opposite directions.
- Her hair had a nice wave to it.
Frequency
Overall
Common· #1595
By learning goal
- Everyday conversation
- Rare
- General reading & writing
- Common
- Academic
- Rare
- Literature
- Uncommon
Etymology
From Middle English waven, from Old English wafian (“to wave, fluctuate, waver in mind, wonder”), from Proto-West Germanic *wabōn, from Proto-Germanic *wabōną, *wabjaną (“to wander, sway”), from Proto-Indo-European *webʰ- (“to move to and from, wander”).