wavelet

plural wavelets

1. A small wave; a ripple.

   1856, Herman Melville, “The Piazza” in The Piazza Tales, New York: Dix & Edwards, pp. 6-7, […] long ground-swells roll the slanting grain, and little wavelets of grass ripple over upon the low piazza, as their beach, and the blown down of dandelions is wafted like the spray […]

   5 more examples

   1851, “Speaker’s Meaning dimly descried” (Fragment) in Poems, London: William Pickering, p. 110, I know not whether I see your meaning: if I do, it lies Upon the wordy wavelets of your voice, Dim as an evening shadow in a brook, When the least moon has silver on’t no larger Than the pure white of Hebe’s nail.

   The water danced and sparkled, multitudes of birds were on the wing, now dipping in the wavelets, now rising and shaking off the glittering drops.

   1880, Sabine Baring-Gould, chapter 4, in Mehalah: A Story of the Salt Marshes, London: Smith, Elder & Co., published 1884, page 46

   They sat on the beach and watched the hissing wavelets.

   1961, Norma Lorre Goodrich, “Beowulf”, in The Medieval Myths, New York: The New American Library, page 35

   A little, rubbishy wavelet, full of candy wrappers and orange peel and seaweed, folded over my foot.

   1963, Sylvia Plath, chapter 13, in The Bell Jar, London: Faber & Faber, published 1971

   They left the shop in a united wavelet of amusement […]

   1965, Muriel Spark, chapter 3, in The Mandelbaum Gate, London: Macmillan

2. mathematicsA fast-decaying oscillation.