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billow - 5 dictionary results

bil⋅low

[bil-oh]
–noun
1. a great wave or surge of the sea.
2. any surging mass: billows of smoke.
–verb (used without object)
3. to rise or roll in or like billows; surge.
4. to swell out, puff up, etc., as by the action of wind: flags billowing in the breeze.
–verb (used with object)
5. to make rise, surge, swell, or the like: A sudden wind billowed the tent alarmingly.

Origin:
1545–55; < ON bylgja wave, c. MLG bulge; akin to OE gebylgan to anger, provoke


1. swell, breaker, crest, roller, whitecap.
bil·low   (bĭl'ō)   
n.  
  1. A large wave or swell of water.
  2. A great swell, surge, or undulating mass, as of smoke or sound.
v.   bil·lowed, bil·low·ing, bil·lows

v.   intr.
  1. To surge or roll in billows.
  2. To swell out or bulge: sheets billowing in the breeze.
v.   tr.
To cause to billow: wind that billowed the sails.

[From Old Norse bylgja, a wave; see bhelgh- in Indo-European roots.]
bil'low·i·ness n., bil'low·y adj.

Billow

Bil"low\, n. [Cf. Icel. bylgja billow, Dan. b["o]lge, Sw. b["o]lja; akin to MHG. bulge billow, bag, and to E. bulge. See Bulge.]

1. A great wave or surge of the sea or other water, caused usually by violent wind.

Whom the winds waft where'er the billows roll. --Cowper.

2. A great wave or flood of anything. --Milton.

Billow

Bil"low\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Billowed; p. pr. & vb. n. Billowing.] To surge; to rise and roll in waves or surges; to undulate. "The billowing snow." --Prior.
Language Translation for : billow
Spanish: oleada,
German: die Woge,
Japanese: 大波

billow 
1552, perhaps older in dialectal use, from O.N. bylgja "a wave," from P.Gmc. *bulgjan, from PIE *bhelgh- "to swell" (see belly).
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