1. lit. A wave of water.
c. 1560. ? Coverdale, Treat. Death, I. ix. 35. Like as one water waue foloweth vpon another.
1603. J. Davies (Heref.), Microcosm. (Grosart), 91/1. Shee stood, as if she stood vpon no ground, But on some water-waue that made her bound.
1610. Holland, Camden’s Brit., I. 529. Bankes formerly raised against the waterwaves then in-rushing.
1834. Tait’s Mag., I. 340/1. From the engines water-waves are gushing.
2. A seismic wave in the sea.
1877. Huxley, Physiogr., 188. If the centre of disturbance is near the sea, the water-waves may be far more destructive than the earth-waves.
3. ? U.S. A mode of dressing the hair in flattened scallops on the forehead.
1895. Funk’s Stand. Dict.
1913. Webster.
Hence Water-waved ppl. a., having a wave-like pattern or changing gloss.
1599. T. M[oufet], Silkwormes, 3. Last, Easterne wittes from mane of Camels tall Made water-waued stuffe vnseene before.
1841. Catlin, N. Amer. Ind., lii. (1844), II. 143. The agates are many of them peculiarly beautiful, most of them water-waved.
