billowy

B3I1L1L1O1W4Y4
UK/ˈbɪ.ləʊ.(w)i/

adjective

Swelling or swollen into large waves; full of billows or surges; resembling billows.

RareScrabble 15

Meanings

adjectivebillowy (comparative billowier, superlative billowiest)

comparative billowier · superlative billowiest

  1. Swelling or swollen into large waves; full of billows or surges; resembling billows.

    […] Tiare clasped me to her vast bosom, so that I seemed to sink into a billowy sea, and pressed her red lips to mine.

    1919, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, chapter LVIII, in The Moon and Sixpence, [New York, N.Y.]: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers […], →OCLC
    2 more examples

    He was shabby and careless, with inkstains on the sleeves of his jacket, and his cravat was large and billowy, under a chin shaped like the toe of an old boot.

    1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part I, page 200

    This allows the muscular man to order a suit whose jacket fits him in the chest and shoulders and is not billowy through the waist and hips; and whose trousers fit him in the waist but whose legs are not reminiscent of harem pants.

    2006, Nicholas Antongiavanni [pseudonym; Michael Anton], The Suit: A Machiavellian Approach to Men's Style, New York: HarperCollins Publishers, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 28

Synonyms & antonyms

adjectivecharacterized by great swelling waves or surges

Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.

Origin

  1. Proto-Indo-European*bʰelǵʰ-
  2. Proto-Germanic*belganą
  3. Proto-Germanic*bulgijō
  4. Old Norsebylgja
  5. Middle English*bilwe
  6. Englishbillow
  7. Englishbillowy

From billow + -y.

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Bulgarian хълмист
  • хълмист (hălmist)full of billows or surges
Czech vlnící se, vzdouvající se
  • vlnící sefull of billows or surges
  • vzdouvající sefull of billows or surges
German wellig, wogend
  • welligfull of billows or surges
  • wogendfull of billows or surges
Māori tāpokopoko
  • tāpokopokofull of billows or surges
Spanish onduloso
  • ondulosofull of billows or surges
Turkish dalga dalga, dalgalı
  • dalga dalgafull of billows or surges
  • dalgalıfull of billows or surges

Rhymes & wordplay

Rhymes with billowy

All rhymes →
Cite this entry
APA

billowy. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/billowy

MLA

“billowy.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/billowy. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “billowy,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/billowy.

Source: billowy on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.