Wave , n. Something resembling or likened
to a water wave, as in rising unusually high, in being of unusual extent, or in progressive motion; a swelling or
excitement, as of feeling or
energy; a tide; flood; period of intensity, usual activity, or the like; as,
a wave of enthusiasm.
Wave , n. [From Wave, v.; not the same word
as OE. wawe, waghe,
a wave, which is akin
to E. wag to move. √136. See Wave, v. i.]
1. An advancing ridge or swell on the surface of a liquid, as of the sea, resulting from the oscillatory motion of the
particles composing it when disturbed by any force their position of rest; an undulation.
The wave behind impels the wave before.
Pope. 2. (Physics) A vibration propagated from particle to particle through a body or elastic medium, as in the transmission of sound; an assemblage of vibrating
molecules in all phases of a vibration, with no phase repeated; a wave of vibration; an undulation. See Undulation.
3.
Water; a body of water. [Poetic] "Deep drank Lord Marmion of the wave." Sir W. Scott.
Build a ship to save
thee from the flood,
I 'll furnish thee with fresh wave, bread, and wine.
Chapman. 4.
Unevenness; inequality of surface. Sir I. Newton.
5. A waving or undulating motion; a signal made with the hand, a flag,
etc.
6. The undulating line or streak of
luster on cloth watered, or calendered, or on damask
steel.
7. Fig.: A swelling or excitement of thought, feeling, or energy; a tide; as, waves of enthusiasm.
Wave front (Physics), the surface of initial displacement of the particles in a medium, as a wave of vibration advances. --
Wave length (Physics), the space, reckoned in the direction of propagation, occupied by a complete
wave or undulation, as of light, sound, etc.; the distance from a point or phase in a wave to the
nearest point at which the same phase occurs. - - Wave line (Shipbuilding), a line of a vessel's hull, shaped in accordance with the wave-line
system. -- Wave-line system, Wave-line theory (Shipbuilding), a system or theory of designing the lines of a vessel, which takes into consideration the length and shape of a wave which travels at a certain
speed. -- Wave loaf, a loaf for a wave offering. Lev.
viii. 27. -- Wave moth (Zoöl.), any one of numerous species of small geometrid moths belonging to Acidalia and allied genera; -- so called from the wavelike color markings on the wings. -- Wave offering, an offering made in the Jewish
services by waving the object, as a loaf of bread, toward the four cardinal points. Num. xviii. 11. --
Wave of vibration (Physics), a wave which consists in, or is
occasioned by, the production and transmission of a vibratory state from particle to particle through a body. -- Wave surface. (a) (Physics)
A surface of simultaneous and equal displacement of the particles composing a wave of vibration. (b) (Geom.) A mathematical surface of the fourth
order which, upon certain hypotheses, is the locus
of a wave surface of light in the
interior of crystals. It is used in
explaining the phenomena of double refraction. See under Refraction. -- Wave theory. (Physics) See Undulatory theory, under Undulatory.
Wave , v. t. 1. To
move one way and the other; to brandish. "[Æneas]
waved his fatal sword." Dryden.
2.
To raise into inequalities of surface; to give an undulating form a surface to.
Horns whelked and waved like the enridged sea.
Shak. 3. To move like a wave, or by floating; to waft. [Obs.] Sir T. Browne.
4. 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.
Look, with what courteous action
It waves you to a more removed ground.
Shak.
She spoke, and bowing waved
Dismissal.
Tennyson.
Wave , v. i. [imp. & p. p. Waved (wāvd); p. pr. & vb. n.
Waving.]
[OE. waven, AS. wafian
to waver, to
hesitate, to wonder; akin to wæfre wavering, restless, MHG. wabern to
be in motion, Icel. vafra to hover about; cf. Icel. vāfa to
vibrate. Cf. Waft,
Waver.]
1. To play loosely; to move like a wave, one way
and the other; to float; to flutter; to undulate.
His purple robes waved careless to the winds.
Trumbull. Where the flags of three nations has successively waved.
Hawthorne.
2. To be
moved to and fro as a signal. B. Jonson.
3. To fluctuate; to waver; to be in an unsettled state; to vacillate. [Obs.]
He waved indifferently 'twixt doing them neither good nor harm.
Shak.
Wave (wāv),
v. t. See Waive. Sir H. Wotton. Burke.
Hear it pronounced