Definition of "wave"

wave¹

/weɪv/

verb
third-person singular simple present waves, present participle waving, simple past and past participle waved
1. (intransitive) To move back and forth repeatedly and somewhat loosely.
  Quotations
  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. (intransitive) To move one’s hand back and forth (generally above the shoulders) in greeting or departure.
  Quotations
  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, page 1090
3. (transitive, metonymically) 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.
  Quotations
  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, [Act I, scene iv]
  She spoke, and bowing waved / Dismissal.
  1847, Alfred Tennyson, “Part 2”, in The Princess: A Medley, London: Edward Moxon, […]
4. (intransitive) To have an undulating or wavy form.
5. (transitive) To raise into inequalities of surface; to give an undulating form or surface to.
  Quotations
  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, [Act IV, scene vi]
6. (transitive) To produce waves to the hair.
  Quotations
  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
7. (intransitive, baseball) To swing and miss at a pitch.
8. (transitive) To cause to move back and forth repeatedly.
9. (transitive, metonymically) To signal (someone or something) with a waving movement.
10. (intransitive, obsolete) To fluctuate; to waver; to be in an unsettled state.
  Quotations
  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, [Act II, scene ii]
11. (intransitive, ergative) To move like a wave, or by floating; to waft.
  Quotations
  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
  The moonlight fell into the room, and the shadows waved over him
  1866, John Saunders, Bound to the Wheel, page 89
  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
  The two stood in the window peering down where parents moved across grass, pointing tongues of colour waving over them.
  2015, Arthur Calder-Marshall, About Levy

wave²

/weɪv/

noun
plural waves
1. A moving disturbance in the level of a body of liquid; an undulation.
  Quotations
  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
2. (poetic) The ocean.
  Quotations
  […] 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.
  1895, Fiona Macleod (William Sharp), The Sin-Eater and Other Tales
3. (physics) A moving disturbance in the energy level of a field.
4. A shape that alternatingly curves in opposite directions.
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.
7. (figuratively) A sudden, but temporary, uptick in something.
  Quotations
  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
8. (video games, by extension) One of the successive swarms of enemies sent to attack the player in certain games.
  Quotations
  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, JQuery, and More
9. (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.
verb
third-person singular simple present waves, present participle waving, simple past and past participle waved
1. To generate a wave.
  Quotations
  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

wave³

/weɪv/

verb
third-person singular simple present waves, present participle waving, simple past and past participle waved
1. Obsolete spelling of waive
  Quotations
  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, page 119

Definition of "wave"

wave1

verb

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

wave2

noun

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

verb

Quotations

wave3

verb

Quotations

wave¹

wave²

wave³