wave
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: enpr: wāv
ipa: /weɪv/
homophone: waive
rhymes: -eɪv
Forms: form: waves
form: waving
form: waved
form: waved
Etymology: From Middle English waven, from Old English wafian (“to wave, fluctuate, waver in mind, wonder”), from Proto-West Germanic *wabōn, from Proto-Germanic *wabōną, *wabjaną (“to wander, sway”), from Proto-Indo-European *webʰ- (“to move to and from, wander”).
Cognate with Middle High German waben (“to wave”), German wabern (“to waft”), Icelandic váfa (“to fluctuate, waver, doubt”). See also waver.
Senses: examples: text: The flag waved in the gentle breeze.
text: 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.
ref: 2011 October 1, Tom Fordyce, “Rugby World Cup 2011: England 16-12 Scotland”, in BBC Sport:
glosses: To move back and forth repeatedly and somewhat loosely.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 1978, Richard Nixon, RN: the Memoirs of Richard Nixon, Grosset & Dunlap, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page 1090:
glosses: To move one's hand back and forth (generally above the shoulders) in greeting or departure.
examples: text: I waved goodbye from across the room.
text: Look, with what courteous action / It waves you to a more removed ground.
ref: 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]:
text: She spoke, and bowing waved / Dismissal.
ref: 1847, Alfred Tennyson, “Part 2”, in The Princess: A Medley, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC:
glosses: 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.
glosses: To have an undulating or wavy form.
examples: text: horns whelked and waved like the enridged sea
ref: 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]:
glosses: To raise into inequalities of surface; to give an undulating form or surface to.
examples: text: 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;[…].
ref: 1977, Agatha Christie, chapter 4, in An Autobiography, part II, London: Collins, →ISBN:
glosses: To style (the hair) so as to produce a wavy texture.
examples: text: Jones waves at strike one.
topics: ball-games
baseball
games
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: To swing and miss at a pitch.
examples: text: The starter waved the flag to begin the race.
text: His father has waved bills in front of face and said to him — see what you've cost me.
ref: 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:
glosses: To cause to move back and forth repeatedly.
glosses: To signal (someone or something) with a waving movement.
examples: text: He waved indifferently 'twixt doing them neither good nor harm.
ref: 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]:
glosses: To fluctuate; to waver; to be in an unsettled state.
examples: text: 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
ref: 1803, William Hogarth, Anecdotes of Mr. Hogarth: And Explanatory Descriptions of the Plates of Hogarth Restored, page 137:
text: 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.
ref: 1850, Pierce Egan, Robin Hood and Little John: or, The merry men of Sherwood forest, page 272:
text: 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.
ref: 1851, Margaret Plues, Rambles in Search of Ferns, page 31:
text: The moonlight fell into the room, and the shadows waved over him
ref: 1866, John Saunders, Bound to the Wheel, page 89:
text: 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
ref: 1951, Doris Lessing, “The Second Hut”, in African Stories, published 2014, page 82:
text: A chill waved over my consciousness as my worst nightmare erupted into reality.
ref: 1997, Elizabeth Barrett, Victoria Bovard, And His Love Shown Down, page 88:
text: The two stood in the window peering down where parents moved across grass, pointing tongues of colour waving over them.
ref: 2015, Arthur Calder-Marshall, About Levy:
glosses: To move like a wave, or by floating; to waft.
Hyponyms: wave off
Derived terms: wave aside
wave away
wave down
wave goodbye
wave in
waver
wave the bloody shirt
wave the white flag
wave through