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

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

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 ]

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 ]

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 ]

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 ]

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 ]

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