n. pl. the medium of transmission of signals by radio or television stations; by radio transmission; -- used non-technically; as, over the airwaves, i. e. by radio or television. [ PJC ]

n. 1. rapid fluctuations of voltage between parts of the brain.
Syn. -- brain wave, cortical potential. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

2. the clear (and often sudden) understanding of a complex situation.
Syn. -- insight, brainstorm. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

. (Meteor.) In the terminology of the United States Weather Bureau, an unusual fall in temperature, to or below the freezing point, exceeding 16° in twenty-four hours or 20° in thirty-six hours, independent of the diurnal range. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

n. an extreme bellicose nationalist.
Syn. -- chauvinist, jingoist, jingo, hundred-percenter. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. 1. A wave or curl in the hair that lasts for months and is made durable by treating the hair with chemicals when it is curled.
Syn. -- permanent. [ PJC ]

2. The process of treating the hair with chemicals to create a permanent wave{ 1 }. [ PJC ]

n. 1. an unusually high wave from the sea, sometimes reaching far inland and causing great destruction, and usually caused by some event, such as an earthquake, far from the shore. In Japan, such a wave is called a tsunami. [ PJC ]

2. [ fig. ] an unusually large quantity of items or events requiring attention and causing strain on the capacity to handle them; as, a tidal wave of orders for a new product; a tidal wave of tourists. [ PJC ]

See accommodating.
See aching.
See ailing.
See aiming.
See alarming.
See altering.
See appreciating.
See approving.
See aspiring.
See assisting.
See attempting.
See attending.
See bearing.
See befitting.
See beginning.
See believing.
See bleaching.
See bleeding.
See blemishing.
See blenching.
See blossoming.
See blushing.
See boding.
See branching.
See breathing.
See burning.
See calculating.
See ceasing.
See changing.
See charming.
See communicating.
See complaining.
See complying.
See conceiving.
See conducing.
See confessing.
See conniving.
See consenting.
See considering.
See conspiring.
See consulting.
See consuming.
See contending.
See contriving.
See conversing.
See convincing.
See dawning.
See decaying.
See delaying.
See depending.
See derogating.
See deserving.
See desiring.
See despairing.
See detesting.
See deviating.
See differencing.
See discerning.
See discording.
See discriminating.
See disobliging.
See dispensing.
See dissembling.
See dissolving.
See distinguishing.
See distracting.
See disturbing.
See doubting.
See dreading.
See drooping.
See ebbing.
See echoing.
See edifying.
See ending.
See enduring.
See engaging.
See enjoying.
See entering.
See enterprising.
See entertaining.
See envying.
See existing.
See fadging.
See fading.
See fainting.
See faltering.
See fearing.
See feigning.
See fighting.
See fitting.
See flagging.
See flattering.
See flinching.
See folding.
See forbearing.
See foreboding.
See foreseeing.
See forgiving.
See giving.
See grudging.
See harming.
See heeding.
See hesitating.
See hoping.
See hurting.
See importing.
See imposing.
See improving.
See interesting.
See intermitting.
See intoxicating.
See inviting.
See jarring.
See laboring.
See lingering.
See listening.
See loving.
See meddling.
See meriting.
See mistrusting.
See moving.
See murmuring.
See obliging.
See observing.
See offending.
See opening.
See pardoning.
See paying.
See perceiving.
See performing.
See perishing.
See pitying.
See pleasing.
See possessing.
See preaching.
See prepossessing.
See presuming.
See pretending.
See prevailing.
See prevaricating.
See profiting.
See promising.
See proving.
See quailing.
See questioning.
See reasoning.
See recalling.
See reclining.
See recurring.
See referring.
See reflecting.
See refunding.
See refusing.
See rejoicing.
See relaxing.
See relishing.
See remembering.
See repenting.
See repining.
See reproving.
See repulsing.
See resisting.
See resolving.
See resting.
See returning.
See rewarding.
See sanctifying.
See satisfying.
See searching.
See seeing.
See setting.
See shrinking.
See sinking.
See sleeping.
See slipping.
See slumbering.
See speaking.
See stinting.
See stirring.
See stooping.
See submitting.
See sufficing.
See suiting.
See surging.
See suspecting.
See sweating.
See swerving.
See sympathizing.
See tasting.
See thriving.
See tiring.
See toiling.
See trading.
See trembling.
See trespassing.
See trifling.
See vacillating.
See varying.
See walking.
See wandering.
See waning.
See wasting.
See wavering.
See weeping.
See winking.
See winning.
See withdrawing.
See withering.
See wondering.
See working.
See writing.
See yielding.
----- and the like. [ 1913 Webster ]

The above classes of words are unlimited in extent, and such compounds may be formed by any writer or speaker at will from almost all the adjectives or participles in the language, excepting those which have a recognized and usual negative correspondent with the prefix -in. No attempt will be made, therefore, to define them all in this Dictionary; many will be omitted from its Vocabulary which are negations of the simple word, and are readily explained by prefixing a not to the latter. Derivatives of these words in -ly and -ness will also, for the most part, be omitted for the same or similar reasons. [ 1913 Webster ]

There will be inserted as separate articles with definitions, the following: -- [ 1913 Webster ]

1. Those which have acquired an opposed or contrary, instead of a merely negative, meaning; as, unfriendly, ungraceful, unpalatable, unquiet, and the like; or else an intensive sense more than a prefixed not would express; as, unending, unparalleled, undisciplined, undoubted, unsafe, and the like. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Those which have the value of independent words, inasmuch as the simple words are either not used at all, or are rarely, or at least much less frequently, used; as, unavoidable, unconscionable, undeniable, unspeakable, unprecedented, unruly, and the like; or inasmuch as they are used in a different sense from the usual meaning of the primitive, or especially in one of the significations of the latter; as, unaccountable, unalloyed, unbelieving, unpretending, unreserved, and the like; or inasmuch as they are so frequently and familiarly used that they are hardly felt to be of negative origin; as, uncertain, uneven, and the like. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Those which are anomalous, provincial, or, for some other reason, not desirable to be used, and are so indicated; as, unpure for impure, unsatisfaction for dissatisfaction, unexpressible for inexpressible, and the like. [ 1913 Webster ]

II. Un- is prefixed to nouns to express the absence of, or the contrary of, that which the noun signifies; as, unbelief, unfaith, unhealth, unrest, untruth, and the like. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ Compounds of this last class are given in full in their proper order in the Vocabulary. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. See Waive. Sir H. Wotton. Burke. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. [ imp. & p. p. Waved p. pr. & vb. n. Waving. ] [ OE. waven, AS. wafian to waver, to hesitate, to wonder; akin to wæfre wavering, restless, MHG. wabern to be in motion, Icel. vafra to hover about; cf. Icel. vāfa to vibrate. Cf. Waft, Waver. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

1. To play loosely; to move like a wave, one way and the other; to float; to flutter; to undulate. [ 1913 Webster ]

His purple robes waved careless to the winds. Trumbull. [ 1913 Webster ]

Where the flags of three nations has successively waved. Hawthorne. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To be moved to and fro as a signal. B. Jonson. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To fluctuate; to waver; to be in an unsettled state; to vacillate. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

He waved indifferently 'twixt doing them neither good nor harm. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. 1. To move one way and the other; to brandish. “[ Aeneas ] waved his fatal sword.” Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To raise into inequalities of surface; to give an undulating form a surface to. [ 1913 Webster ]

Horns whelked and waved like the enridged sea. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To move like a wave, or by floating; to waft. [ Obs. ] Sir T. Browne. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. 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. [ 1913 Webster ]

Look, with what courteous action
It waves you to a more removed ground. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

She spoke, and bowing waved
Dismissal. Tennyson. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ From Wave, v.; not the same word as OE. wawe, waghe, a wave, which is akin to E. wag to move. √138. See Wave, v. i. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

The wave behind impels the wave before. Pope. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Water; a body of water. [ Poetic ] “Deep drank Lord Marmion of the wave.” Sir W. Scott. [ 1913 Webster ]

Build a ship to save thee from the flood,
I 'll furnish thee with fresh wave, bread, and wine. Chapman. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. Unevenness; inequality of surface. Sir I. Newton. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. A waving or undulating motion; a signal made with the hand, a flag, etc. [ 1913 Webster ]

6. The undulating line or streak of luster on cloth watered, or calendered, or on damask steel. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. 1. Exhibiting a wavelike form or outline; undulating; intended; wavy; as, waved edge. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Having a wavelike appearance; marked with wavelike lines of color; as, waved, or watered, silk. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (Her.) Having undulations like waves; -- said of one of the lines in heraldry which serve as outlines to the ordinaries, etc. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Free from waves; undisturbed; not agitated; as, the waveless sea. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A little wave; a ripple. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ After Dr. Wm. Wavel, the discoverer. ] (Min.) A hydrous phosphate of alumina, occurring usually in hemispherical radiated forms varying in color from white to yellow, green, or black. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. [ imp. & p. p. Wavered p. pr. & vb. n. Wavering. ] [ OE. waveren, from AS. wæfre wavering, restless. See Wave, v. i. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

1. To play or move to and fro; to move one way and the other; hence, to totter; to reel; to swing; to flutter. [ 1913 Webster ]

With banners and pennons wavering with the wind. Ld. Berners. [ 1913 Webster ]

Thou wouldst waver on one of these trees as a terror to all evil speakers against dignities. Sir W. Scott. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To be unsettled in opinion; to vacillate; to be undetermined; to fluctuate; as, to water in judgment. [ 1913 Webster ]

Let us hold fast . . . without wavering. Heb. x. 23. [ 1913 Webster ]

In feeble hearts, propense enough before
To waver, or fall off and join with idols. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

Syn. -- To reel; totter; vacillate. See Fluctuate. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ From Wave, or Waver, v. ] A sapling left standing in a fallen wood. [ Prov. Eng. ] Halliwell. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. One who wavers; one who is unsettled in doctrine, faith, opinion, or the like. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

adv. In a wavering manner. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The quality or state of wavering. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ From Wave; cf. Jetsam. ] (O. Eng. Law) Goods which, after shipwreck, appear floating on the waves, or sea. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Worn by the waves. [ 1913 Webster ]

The shore that o'er his wave-worn basis bowed. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Zool.) The snow goose. [ Canadian, & Local U. S. ] [ 1913 Webster ]