wave

noun11

1. •
   an area of water that rises above the rest and moves across the sea or a lake

   • The wave traveled from the center of the lake before breaking on the shore.
2. •
   A moving disturbance in the energy level of a field.

   • Gravity waves, while predicted by theory for decades, have been notoriously difficult to detect.
3. •
   A loose back-and-forth movement, as of the hands.

   • He dismissed her with a wave of the hand.
4. •
   One of the successive swarms of enemies sent to attack the player in certain games.

   • As the player eliminates each wave of 55 aliens, the next wave begins lower than the one previous. — 2011
5. •
   (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.
   • A wave of retirees began moving to the coastal area.
6. •
   (figurative) A movement or trend in popular culture.
7. •
   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.
8. •
   A shape that alternatingly curves in opposite directions.

   • Her hair had a nice wave to it.
9. •
   (literary) The ocean.

   • […] 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. — 1895
10. •
    Any of a series of orders to be fulfilled in one short interval of time, planned as part of wave picking.
11. •
    Any of a number of species of moths in the geometrid subfamily Sterrhinae, which have wavy markings on the wings.

verb12

1. •
   To move back and forth repeatedly and somewhat loosely.

   • The flag waved in the gentle breeze.
2. •
   To move one's hand back and forth (generally above the shoulders) in greeting or departure.

   • I raised my arms in a final salute. I smiled. I waved goodbye. I turned into the helicopter, the door was closed, the red carpet was rolled up. — 1978
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.

   • I waved goodbye from across the room.
4. •
   To signal (someone or something) with a waving movement.
5. •
   To cause to move back and forth repeatedly.

   • The starter waved the flag to begin the race.
6. •
   To have an undulating or wavy form.
7. •
   To raise into inequalities of surface; to give an undulating form or surface to.

   • horns whelked and waved like the enridged sea — 1603
8. •
   To style (the hair) so as to produce a wavy texture.
9. •
   To move like a wave, or by floating; to waft.

   • But in the last, this dotted line, by the twisting as well as the bending of the horn, is changed from the waving into the serpentine line — 1803
10. •
    To generate a wave.

    • If the electron had wavelike properties, then what was disturbing the medium in which the wave existed? What was waving? — 2021
11. •
    To swing and miss at a pitch.

    • Jones waves at strike one.
12. •
    (no longer used) To fluctuate; to waver; to be in an unsettled state.

    • He waved indifferently 'twixt doing them neither good nor harm. — 1608

noun1

1. •
   (US, historical) A members of the WAVES; a member of the US Naval Reserve (Women's Reserve).

   • [H]e read the faded sticker on the crystal of the door, “A slip of the lip can sink a ship.” Below a WAVE held her finger to lips that had turned tan. — 1963