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American Dictionary of the English Language

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Wave


WAVE, noun [G.]

1. A moving swell or volume of water; usually, a swell raised and driven by wind. A pebble thrown into still water produces waves, which form concentric circles, receding from the point where the pebble fell. But waves are generally raised and driven by wind, and the word comprehends any moving swell on the surface of water, from the smallest ripple to the billows of a tempest.

The wave behind impels the wave before.

2. Unevenness; inequality of surface.

3. The line or streak of luster on cloth watered and calendered.

WAVE, verb intransitive

1. To play loosely; to move like a wave one way and the other; to float; to undulate.

His purple robes wavd careless to the wind.

2. To be moved, as a signal.

3. To fluctuate; to waver; to be in an unsettled state.

WAVE, verb transitive [See Waver.]

1. To raise into inequalities of surface.

2. To move one way and the other; to brandish; as, to wave the hand; to wave a sword.

3. To waft; to remove any thing floating.

4. To beckon; to direct by a waft or waving motion.

WAVE, verb transitive

1. To put off; to cast off; to cast away; to reject; as, to wave good stolen; usually written waive.

2. To quit; to depart from.

He resolved not to wave his way.

3. To put off; to put aside for the present, or to omit to pursue; as, to wave a motion. He offered to wave the subject. [This is the usual sense.]