Definition of "wave" in Anglais

verb

1. (intransitive) To move back and forth repeatedly and somewhat loosely.

   • The flag waved in the gentle breeze.

2. (intransitive) To move one's hand back and forth (generally above the shoulders) in greeting or departure.

3. (transitive, metonymic) 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.

   • I waved goodbye from across the room.

4. (intransitive) To have an undulating or wavy form.

5. (transitive) To raise into inequalities of surface; to give an undulating form or surface to.

6. (transitive) To style (the hair) so as to produce a wavy texture.

7. (intransitive, baseball) To swing and miss at a pitch.

   • Jones waves at strike one.

8. (transitive) To cause to move back and forth repeatedly.

   • The starter waved the flag to begin the race.

9. (transitive, metonymic) To signal (someone or something) with a waving movement.

10. (intransitive, obsolete) To fluctuate; to waver; to be in an unsettled state.

11. (intransitive, ergative) 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.

   • The wave traveled from the center of the lake before breaking on the shore.

2. (poetic) The ocean.

   • 1895, Fiona Macleod (William Sharp), The Sin-Eater and Other Tales […] your father Murtagh Ross, and his lawful childless wife, Dionaid, and his sister Anna—one and all, they lie beneath the green wave or in the brown mould.

3. (physics) A moving disturbance in the energy level of a field.

   • Gravity waves, while predicted by theory for decades, have been notoriously difficult to detect.

4. A shape that alternatingly curves in opposite directions.

   • Her hair had a nice wave to it.
   • sine wave

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.

   • He dismissed her with a wave of the hand.

7. (figurative) A sudden, but temporary, uptick in something.

   • A wave of shoppers stampeded through the door when the store opened for its Christmas discount special.