[weyv] 
noun, verb, waved, wav⋅ing.| 1. | a disturbance on the surface of a liquid body, as the sea or a lake, in the form of a moving ridge or swell. |
| 2. | any surging or progressing movement or part resembling a wave of the sea: a wave of the pulse. |
| 3. | a swell, surge, or rush, as of feeling or of a certain condition: a wave of disgust sweeping over a person; a wave of cholera throughout the country. |
| 4. | a widespread feeling, opinion, tendency, etc.: a wave of anti-intellectualism; the new wave of installment buying. |
| 5. | a mass movement, as of troops, settlers, or migrating birds. |
| 6. | an outward curve, or one of a series of such curves, in a surface or line; undulation. |
| 7. | an act or instance of waving. |
| 8. | a fluttering sign or signal made with the hand, a flag, etc.: a farewell wave. |
| 9. | natural waviness of the hair, or a special treatment to impart waviness: to have a wave in one's hair; to get a shampoo and a wave. |
| 10. | a period or spell of unusually hot or cold weather. |
| 11. | Physics. a progressive disturbance propagated from point to point in a medium or space without progress or advance by the points themselves, as in the transmission of sound or light. |
| 12. | Literary.
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| 13. | (at sports events, esp. baseball games) a momentary standing and sitting back down by spectators in a sequential, lateral way to create, en masse, a wavelike effect visually. |
| 14. | to move freely and gently back and forth or up and down, as by the action of air currents, sea swells, etc.: The flags were waving in the wind. |
| 15. | to curve alternately in opposite directions; have an undulating form: The road waved along the valley. |
| 16. | to bend or sway up and down or to and fro, as branches or plants in the wind. |
| 17. | to be moved, esp. alternately in opposite directions: The woman's handkerchief waved in encouragement. |
| 18. | to give a signal by fluttering or flapping something: She waved to me with her hand. |
| 19. | to cause to flutter or have a waving motion in: A night wind waves the tattered banners. |
| 20. | to cause to bend or sway up and down or to and fro: The storm waved the heavy branches of the elm. |
| 21. | to give an undulating form to; cause to curve up and down or in and out. |
| 22. | to give a wavy appearance or pattern to, as silk. |
| 23. | to impart a wave to (the hair). |
| 24. | to move, esp. alternately in opposite directions: to wave the hand. |
| 25. | to signal to by waving a flag or the like; direct by a waving movement: to wave a train to a halt; to wave traffic around an obstacle. |
| 26. | to signify or express by a waving movement: to wave a last good-bye. |
| 27. | make waves, Informal. to disturb the status quo; cause trouble, as by questioning or resisting the accepted rules, procedures, etc.: The best way to stay out of trouble at the office is not to make waves. |
In physics, any regularly recurring event, such as surf coming in toward a beach, that can be thought of as a disturbance moving through a medium. Waves are characterized by wavelength, frequency, and the speed at which they move. Waves are found in many forms.
Note: The motion of a wave and the motion of the medium on which the wave moves are not the same: ocean waves, for example, move toward the beach, but the water itself merely moves up and down. Sound waves are spread by alternating compression and expansion of air.
wave (wāv)
n.
A disturbance traveling through a medium by which energy is transferred from one particle of the medium to another without causing any permanent displacement of the medium itself.
A graphic representation of the variation of such a disturbance with time.
A single cycle that is representative of such a disturbance.
wave (wāv) Pronunciation Key
(click for larger image in new window) A disturbance, oscillation, or vibration, either of a medium and moving through that medium (such as water and sound waves), or of some quantity with different values at different points in space, moving through space (such as electromagnetic waves or a quantum mechanical wave described by the wave function). See also longitudinal wave, transverse wave, wave function. See Note at refraction. |
