wave

pronunciation

How to pronounce wave in British English: UK [weɪv] word uk audio image

How to pronounce wave in American English: US [weɪv] word us audio image

Noun:

one of a series of ridges that moves across the surface of a liquid (especially across a large body of water)
a movement like that of an ocean wave
(physics) a movement up and down or back and forth
something that rises rapidly
the act of signaling by a movement of the hand
a hairdo that creates undulations in the hair
an undulating curve
a persistent and widespread unusual weather condition (especially of unusual temperatures)
Verb:

signal with the hands or nod
move or swing back and forth
move in a wavy pattern or with a rising and falling motion
twist or roll into coils or ringlets
set waves in

Word Origin

wave: wave: English has two words wave, distinct in origin, which have grown to resemble each other over the centuries. The verb, ‘move to and fro’ [OE], goes back to a prehistoric Germanic base *wab-, which also produced English waver [14] (borrowed from Old Norse vafra ‘move unsteadily’) and wobble [17]. The noun wave ‘movement of the sea’ [16] seems to be an alteration (under the influence of the verb wave) of an earlier wawe ‘wave’. This in turn probably went back to Old English wǣg ‘motion, wave’, a derivative of the verb which produced modern English wag.=> waver, wobble; wag

wave (v.): "move back and forth," Old English wafian "to wave, fluctuate" (related to wæfre "wavering, restless, unstable"), from Proto-Germanic *wab- (cognates: Old Norse vafra "to hover about," Middle High German waben "to wave, undulate"), possibly from PIE root *webh- "to move to and fro; to weave" (see weave (v.)). Transitive sense is from mid-15c.; meaning "to make a sign by a wave of the hand" is from 1510s. Related: Waved; waving. I was much further out than you thought And not waving but drowning. [Stevie Smith]

wave (n.): "moving billow of water," 1520s, alteration (by influence of wave (v.)) of Middle English waw, which is from Old English wagian "to move to and fro" (cognates: Old Saxon, Old High German wag, Old Frisian weg, Old Norse vagr "water in motion, wave, billow," Gothic wegs "tempest;" see wag (v.)). The usual Old English word for "moving billow of water" was yð. The "hand motion" meaning is recorded from 1680s; meaning "undulating line" is recorded from 1660s. Of people in masses, first recorded 1852; in physics, from 1832. Sense in heat wave is from 1843. The crowd stunt in stadiums is attested under this name from 1984, the thing itself said to have been done first Oct. 15, 1981, at the Yankees-A's AL championship series game in the Oakland Coliseum; soon picked up and popularized at University of Washington. To make waves "cause trouble" is attested from 1962.

vt.