wave

present singular third person waves · participle present waving · participle past waved · past waved

1. intransitiveTo move back and forth repeatedly and somewhat loosely.

   The flag waved in the gentle breeze.

   1 more example

   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.

   2011 October 1, Tom Fordyce, “Rugby World Cup 2011: England 16-12 Scotland”, in BBC Sport

2. intransitiveTo 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.

   1978, Richard Nixon, RN: the Memoirs of Richard Nixon, Grosset & Dunlap, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page 1090

3. metonymicallytransitiveTo 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.

   2 more examples

   Look, with what courteous action / It waves you to a more removed ground.

   c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iv]

   She spoke, and bowing waved / Dismissal.

   1847, Alfred Tennyson, “Part 2”, in The Princess: A Medley, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC

4. intransitiveTo have an undulating or wavy form.
5. transitiveTo raise into inequalities of surface; to give an undulating form or surface to.

   horns whelked and waved like the enridged sea

   c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene vi]

6. transitiveTo style (the hair) so as to produce a wavy texture.

   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;[…].

   1977, Agatha Christie, chapter 4, in An Autobiography, part II, London: Collins, →ISBN

7. intransitiveball gamesTo swing and miss at a pitch.

   Jones waves at strike one.

8. transitiveTo cause to move back and forth repeatedly.

   The starter waved the flag to begin the race.

   1 more example

   His father has waved bills in front of face and said to him — see what you've cost me.

   1977 August 13, Pala Bennett, Mary Jo Risher, “"I'm A Mother, And I'm A Good One."”, in Gay Community News, volume 5, number 6, page 9

9. metonymicallytransitiveTo signal (someone or something) with a waving movement.
10. intransitiveobsoleteTo fluctuate; to waver; to be in an unsettled state.

    He waved indifferently 'twixt doing them neither good nor harm.

    c. 1608–1609 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii]

11. ergativeintransitiveTo move like a wave, or by floating; to waft.

    The moonlight fell into the room, and the shadows waved over him

    1866, John Saunders, Bound to the Wheel, page 89

    5 more examples

    But in the last, this dotted line, by the twisting as well as the bending of the horn, is changed from the waving into the serpentine line

    1803, William Hogarth, Anecdotes of Mr. Hogarth: And Explanatory Descriptions of the Plates of Hogarth Restored, page 137

    the flowers will not bloom less brightly, nor the grass be less green and fresh because it is waving over the head of one who loved to look upon their tender beauty while living.

    1850, Pierce Egan, Robin Hood and Little John: or, The merry men of Sherwood forest, page 272

    The cypresslike ferns were not waving over these, as they waved over the corals in the wood, but the little spleenwort, called Wall-rue, was resolved that their tomb should not be without verdure.

    1851, Margaret Plues, Rambles in Search of Ferns, page 31

    Walking through the fields, where the maize was now waving over his head, pale gold with a froth of white, the sharp dead leaves scything crisply against the wind, he could see nothing but that black foetid hut

    1951, Doris Lessing, “The Second Hut”, in African Stories, published 2014, page 82

    A chill waved over my consciousness as my worst nightmare erupted into reality.

    1997, Elizabeth Barrett, Victoria Bovard, And His Love Shown Down, page 88

plural waves

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.

   3 more examples

   O God! can I not save / One from the pitiless wave? / Is all that we see or seem / But a dream within a dream?

   1849 March 31, Edgar Allan Poe, “A Dream Within a Dream”, in The Works of the Late Edgar Allan Poe: […], volumes II (Poems and Miscellanies), New York, N.Y.: J. S. Redfield, […], published 1850, →OCLC, page 40

   A wave simulator in the tank can re-enact tsunamis and northeasters, and imitate wave conditions from midocean.

   2007 February 20, Tina Kelley, “A Wet Wind Tunnel So Ships Can Move Faster and Better”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 18 Dec 2022

   The new sea wall may stop the waves from the sea, but not from the children who enthusiastically greet our train as it passes. It's great to see this ages-old habit is still going strong.

   2020 December 2, Paul Bigland, “My weirdest and wackiest Rover yet”, in Rail, page 65

   Synonyms: und

2. poeticThe ocean.

   1895, Fiona Macleod (William Sharp), The Sin-Eater and Other Tales […] your father Murtagh Ross, and his lawful childless wife, Dionaid, and his sister Anna—one and all, they lie beneath the green wave or in the brown mould.

   1 more example

   Whoever rules the waves rules the world...

   2024 January 14, Kim Darroch, “Whoever rules the waves rules the world... The Red Sea crisis will show us if that’s true”, in The Observer

3. natural sciencesA moving disturbance in the energy level of a field.

   Gravity waves, while predicted by theory for decades, have been notoriously difficult to detect.

   1 more example

   Beyond military applications, cloaking devices are drawing interest from telecommunications companies, who see them as a way to send information by light more efficiently. One idea is to use the new materials to build "superantennas" that can concentrate light and other electromagnetic waves to make laser-like beams.

   2010 March 18, Ian Sample, “Cloaking device makes objects invisible – to infrared light anyway”, in Alan Rusbridger, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 02 Feb 2023

4. A shape that alternatingly curves in opposite directions.

   sine wave

   1 more example

   Her hair had a nice wave to it.

5. Any of a number of species of moths in the geometrid subfamily Sterrhinae, which have wavy markings on the wings.
6. A loose back-and-forth movement, as of the hands.

   He dismissed her with a wave of the hand.

7. figurativelyA sudden, but temporary, uptick in something.

   A wave of retirees began moving to the coastal area.

   3 more examples

   A wave of shoppers stampeded through the door when the store opened for its Christmas discount special.

   A wave of emotion overcame her when she thought about her son who was killed in battle.

   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.

   2011 January 11, Jonathan Stevenson, “West Ham 2 - 1 Birmingham”, in BBC

   Synonyms: rush

8. logisticsAny of a series of orders to be fulfilled in one short interval of time, planned as part of wave picking.
9. figurativelyA movement or trend in popular culture.

   New Wave

   1 more example

   Korean Wave

10. broadlyvideo gamesOne of the successive swarms of enemies sent to attack the player in certain games.

    As the player eliminates each wave of 55 aliens, the next wave begins lower than the one previous.

    2011, Raffaele Cecco, Supercharged JavaScript Graphics: With HTML5 Canvas and jQuery

11. usually “the wave”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.

    Synonyms: Mexican wave

present singular third person waves · participle present waving · participle past waved · past waved

1. To generate a wave.

   If the electron had wavelike properties, then what was disturbing the medium in which the wave existed? What was waving?

   2021, Michio Kaku, The God Equation

present singular third person waves · participle present waving · participle past waved · past waved

1. obsoleteObsolete spelling of waive.

   Ladies and gentlemen—I am ordered by Miss Woodhouse to say, that she waves her right of knowing exactly what you may all be thinking of, and only requires something very entertaining from each of you, in a general way.

   1815 December (indicated as 1816), [Jane Austen], chapter VII, in Emma: […], volume III, London: […] [Charles Roworth and James Moyes] for John Murray, →OCLC, page 119

plural WAVES

1. UShistoricalA members of the WAVES; a member of the US Naval Reserve (Women's Reserve).

   [H]e read the faded sticker on the crystal of the door, “A slip of the lip can sink a ship.” Below a WAVE held her finger to lips that had turned tan.

   1963 (date written), John Kennedy Toole, A Confederacy of Dunces, London: Penguin Books, published 1980 (1981 printing), →ISBN