wave

Meaning

Verb

1. To move back and forth repeatedly and somewhat loosely.
2. To move one’s hand back and forth (generally above the shoulders) in greeting or departure.
3. 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.
4. To have an undulating or wavy form.
5. To raise into inequalities of surface; to give an undulating form or surface to.
6. To produce waves to the hair.
7. To swing and miss at a pitch.
8. To cause to move back and forth repeatedly.
9. To signal (someone or something) with a waving movement.
10. (obsolete) To fluctuate; to waver; to be in an unsettled state.
11. To move like a wave, or by floating; to waft.

Noun

1. A moving disturbance in the level of a body of liquid; an undulation.
2. The ocean.
3. A moving disturbance in the energy level of a field.
4. A shape that alternatingly curves in opposite directions.
5. Any of a number of species of moths in the geometrid subfamily Sterrhinae, which have wavy markings on the wings.
6. A loose back-and-forth movement, as of the hands.
7. A sudden, but temporary, uptick in something.
8. A movement or trend in popular culture.
9. One of the successive swarms of enemies sent to attack the player in certain games.
10. A group activity in a crowd imitating a wave going through water, where people in successive parts of the crowd stand and stretch upward, then sit.

Pronounced as (IPA)

/weɪv/

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.