From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Wave \Wave\, n. [From {Wave}, v.; not the same word as OE. wawe,
waghe, a wave, which is akin to E. wag to move. [root]138.
See {Wave}, v. i.]
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1. An advancing ridge or swell on the surface of a liquid, as
of the sea, resulting from the oscillatory motion of the
particles composing it when disturbed by any force their
position of rest; an undulation.
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The wave behind impels the wave before. --Pope.
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2. (Physics) A vibration propagated from particle to particle
through a body or elastic medium, as in the transmission
of sound; an assemblage of vibrating molecules in all
phases of a vibration, with no phase repeated; a wave of
vibration; an undulation. See {Undulation}.
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3. Water; a body of water. [Poetic] "Deep drank Lord Marmion
of the wave." --Sir W. Scott.
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Build a ship to save thee from the flood,
I 'll furnish thee with fresh wave, bread, and wine.
--Chapman.
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4. Unevenness; inequality of surface. --Sir I. Newton.
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5. A waving or undulating motion; a signal made with the
hand, a flag, etc.
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6. The undulating line or streak of luster on cloth watered,
or calendered, or on damask steel.
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7. Something resembling or likened to a water wave, as in
rising unusually high, in being of unusual extent, or in
progressive motion; a swelling or excitement, as of
feeling or energy; a tide; flood; period of intensity,
usual activity, or the like; as, a wave of enthusiasm;
waves of applause.
[Webster 1913 Suppl.]
{Wave front} (Physics), the surface of initial displacement
of the particles in a medium, as a wave of vibration
advances.
{Wave length} (Physics), the space, reckoned in the direction
of propagation, occupied by a complete wave or undulation,
as of light, sound, etc.; the distance from a point or
phase in a wave to the nearest point at which the same
phase occurs.
{Wave line} (Shipbuilding), a line of a vessel's hull, shaped
in accordance with the wave-line system.
{Wave-line system}, {Wave-line theory} (Shipbuilding), a
system or theory of designing the lines of a vessel, which
takes into consideration the length and shape of a wave
which travels at a certain speed.
{Wave loaf}, a loaf for a wave offering. --Lev. viii. 27.
{Wave moth} (Zool.), any one of numerous species of small
geometrid moths belonging to {Acidalia} and allied genera;
-- so called from the wavelike color markings on the
wings.
{Wave offering}, an offering made in the Jewish services by
waving the object, as a loaf of bread, toward the four
cardinal points. --Num. xviii. 11.
{Wave of vibration} (Physics), a wave which consists in, or
is occasioned by, the production and transmission of a
vibratory state from particle to particle through a body.
{Wave surface}.
(a) (Physics) A surface of simultaneous and equal
displacement of the particles composing a wave of
vibration.
(b) (Geom.) A mathematical surface of the fourth order
which, upon certain hypotheses, is the locus of a wave
surface of light in the interior of crystals. It is
used in explaining the phenomena of double refraction.
See under {Refraction}.
{Wave theory}. (Physics) See {Undulatory theory}, under
{Undulatory}.
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From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]:
wave front
n 1: all the points just reached by a wave as it propagates
2: (physics) an imaginary surface joining all points in space
that are reached at the same instant by a wave propagating
through a medium [syn: {wave front}, {wavefront}]
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