(Also 6 whave, & weave.) [f. WAVE v.
In sense 1, which appears early in the 16th c., it seems to have been substituted by popular etymology for the older WAW sb., which it rapidly superseded in use. In branch II it is a new formation on the verb.]
I. 1. A movement in the sea or other collection of water, by which a portion of the water rises above the normal level and then subsides, at the same time travelling a greater or smaller distance over the surface; a moving ridge or swell of water between two depressions or ‘troughs’; one of the long ridges or rollers which, in the shallower parts of the sea, follow each other at regular intervals, assuming an arched form, and successively break on the shore. Sometimes the word is applied to the ridge and the accompanying trough taken together, and occasionally to the concave curve of the surface between the crest of one ridge and that of the next.
1526. Tindale, Jas. i. 6. For he that douteth is lyke the waues [1539 Cranmer, 1557 Geneva, 1611 Authorized, a waue; 1535 Coverdale, the wawes] of the see.
1530. Palsgr., 287/1. Wave of the see, uague.
1551. Robinson, trans. More’s Utopia, II. i. (1895), 116. A large and wyde sea, which … is not rough nor mountith not with great waues.
1565. Stapleton, trans. Bede’s Hist. Ch. Eng., 91. The tempest encreased, the whaues multiplied so faste … that nothing but present death was looked for.
1585. Higins, Junius’ Nomencl., 400/1. Vnda sequax,… waue vpon waue: one waue following vpon anothers necke.
1593. Shaks., 3 Hen. VI., II. vi. 36. As doth a Saile, fill’d with a fretting Gust Command an Argosie to stemme the Waues.
1603. Holland, Plutarch’s Mor., 255. As in a setled calme, without winde, weather and wave.
1671. Milton, P. R., IV. 18. As … surging waves against a solid rock, Though all to shivers dash’t, the assault renew.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., IV. 767. Proteus … in the Billows plung’d his hoary Head; And where he leap’d, the Waves in Circles widely spread.
1781. Cowper, Expost., 272. What ails thee, restless as the waves that roar, And fling their foam against thy chalky shore?
1810. Scott, Lady of L., VI. xviii. Like wave with crest of sparkling foam, Right onward did Clan-Alpine come.
1855. Tennyson, Maud, I. xviii. 8. Is that enchanted moan only the swell Of the long waves that roll in yonder bay? Ibid. (1860), Islet, 16. Waves on a diamond shingle dash.
1877. W. H. White, Naval Archit., xi. 443. The main bow wave may also be followed by a train of waves, successive waves in a series having diminished heights.
1877. Huxley, Physiogr., 171. It is merely the form of the wave, and not the actual water that travels.
1812–6. Playfair, Nat. Phil., II. 329. The great Wave which, in this manner, constitutes the tide, is to be considered as an undulation … of the ocean, in which [etc.].
c. Poet. Used in collective sing for ‘water,’ ‘sea.’ The plural is also similarly used (poet. and rhetorically), but without quite losing the primary meaning.
1588. Shaks., L. L. L., V. i. 61. Now by the salt waue of the mediteranium, a sweet tutch.
1590. Spenser, F. Q., II. vii. 57. He … looking downe, saw many damned wights, In those sad waues [of Cocytus].
1616. Chapman, trans. Musæus, F 1. Virgin, for thy Loue, I will swim a waue That Ships denies.
1667. Milton, P. L., I. 193. Thus Satan talking to his neerest Mate With Head up-lift above the wave.
1742. Gray, Eton, 26. Say, Father Thames,… Who foremost now delight to cleave With pliant arm thy glassy wave?
1784. Cowper, Task, V. 835. When he sees afar His country’s weather-bleach’d and batter’d rocks, From the green wave emerging.
1820. Byron, Mar. Fal., II. i. The calm wave Favours the gondolier’s light skimming oar.
1825. Scott, Talism., i. Where the waves of the Jordan pour themselves into an inland sea.
1844. Hood, Bridge of Sighs, 11. Whilst the wave constantly Drips from her clothing.
1860. Patmore, Faithf. for Ever, I. viii. Perhaps … They wander whispering by the wave.
1864. Tennyson, Voy., v. We came to warmer waves, and deep Across the boundless east we drove.
2. transf. a. An undulatory movement, or one of an intermittent series of movements, of something passing over or on a surface or through the air.
1810. Scott, Lady of L., I. xi. The western waves of ebbing day Roll’d o’er the glen their level way.
1827. Keble, Chr. Y., Christm. Day. In waves of light it thrills along.
1833. Tennyson, Dream Fair Wom., xlviii. The holy organ rolling waves Of sound on roof and floor. Ibid. (1850), In Mem., xci. The thousand waves of wheat, That ripple round the lonely grange.
1899. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., VIII. 86. Thus … there are the waves of goose-skin passing over the body.
1903. K. C. Thurston, Circle, iii. 22. It was like a wave of sun through a chill room.
b. = pulse-wave: see PULSE sb.1 5.
1838. Penny Cycl., XII. 81/1. The dilatation of the arteries produced by the wave which is propagated along the column of blood contained in them.
1850. Tennyson, In Mem., cxxii. Till all my blood, a fuller wave, Be quicken’d with a livelier breath.
c. A forward movement of a large body of persons (chiefly invaders or immigrants overrunning a country, or soldiers advancing to an attack), who either recede and return after an interval, or are followed after a time by another body of persons repeating the same movement.
1852. T. Wright, Celt, Roman & Saxon, I. 1. Europe was peopled by several successive migrations, or, as they have been technically named, waves of population, all flowing from one point in the east.
1862. Stanley, Jew. Ch. (1877), I. ix. 176. The Israelite conquest of Palestine … is in itself but one amongst a succession of waves which have swept over the country.
1875. Stubbs, Const. Hist., I. ii. 16. The populations … which … were still affected by the great migratory wave.
1879. Green, Readings fr. Eng. Hist., xix. 98. Turned back wave after wave of the enemy.
1893. O. M. Edwards, in Traill, Soc. Eng., i. 1. The first wave of immigrants that reached Britain … was a wave of men of short stature and swarthy countenance.
1915. Times, 3 Feb., 9/1. They send forward wave after wave of men, regardless of the punishment.
d. A long convex strip of land between two long broad hollows; one of a series of such strips; also occas. a rounded ridge of sand or snow formed by the action of the wind.
1788. A. Young, in F. Baxter’s Libr. Pract. Agric. (ed. 4), II. p. viii. The Downs are … nearly flat, or only in gentle waves at the top.
1789. J. Williams, Min. Kingd., I. 108. The variation of the dip and rise there generally consists of gentle easy swelling waves.
1796. W. H. Marshall, W. Eng., II. 212. A fine Vale District: rich waves of grass land.
1819. S. Rogers, Human Life, 682. A hollow wave Of burning sand their everlasting grave.
1886. Ruskin, Præterita, I. viii. 248. The field fences buried under crested waves of snow.
1887. Rider Haggard, Allan Quaterm., xx. The crest of a great green wave of land, that rolled down a gentle slope to the banks of a little stream.
3. fig. and in figurative context. a. chiefly pl., rough, stormy or fluctuating conditions (of life, care, passion, etc.).
a. 1548. Hall, Chron., 14 Hen. VII. (1550), 49. One fierce & strong waue … swalowed both their lyues not long asonder.
1563. B. Googe, Eglogs, IV. 93. A Creature, cause of all my Care,… A woman Waue of Wretchednes.
1590. Spenser, F. Q., I. x. 34. That he should neuer fall in all his wayes through this wide worldes waue. Ibid., III. viii. 20. That cruell Queene … Did heape on her new waues of weary wretchednesse.
1606. S. Gardiner, Bk. Angling, 12. Waues of tribulation, tempests of tentations.
1781. Cowper, Truth, 1. Man, on the dubious waves of error toss’d, His ship half founder’d, and his compass lost.
1848. Mrs. A. Marsh, Father Darcy, II. iii. 75. Alas! was there no one … to bid the waves of passion be still.
1847. Tennyson, Princess, III. 224. And thus your pains May only make that footprint upon sand Which oft-recurring waves of prejudice Resmooth to nothing.
1856. Geo. Eliot, Scenes Cler. Life, Amos Barton, v. An unfecundated egg, which the waves of time wash away into nonentity.
b. chiefly sing. A swelling, onward movement and subsidence (of feeling, thought, opinion, a custom, condition, etc.); also, a movement (of common sentiment, opinion, excitement) sweeping over a community, and not easily resisted.
1851. G. Brimley, Ess. (1858), 112. Its last vestiges were fast disappearing before the wave of democratic equality.
1855. Bain, Senses & Int., II. iv. § 18. (1864), 285. All the muscles of the body may be thrown into agitation under a wave of strong feeling.
1859. Dickens, etc., Haunted Ho., ii. 10/1. What floods of thought came, wave upon wave, across my mind!
1870. Dk. of Argyll, Iona, i. 29. Certain waves of opinion which at successive periods were propelled from the ancient centres of Christendom.
1903. F. W. H. Myers, Hum. Personal., 7. The highest wave of materialism which has ever swept over these shores.
1915. B. Houghton, in Contemp. Rev., May, 614–5. Small wonder that a wave of militarism sweeps through the nation.
4. An undulating conformation; each of the undulations of such a conformation.
1547. in Feuillerat, Revels Edw. VI. (1914), 9. Clothe of Syluer in waues. Ibid. (1547), 12. The nether skyrtes or Basse of blewe clothe of golde playne leyd on with waves of clothe of Syluer.
1664. Evelyn, Sylva, xxx. 95. That [is] the Grain which runs in waves, and makes the divers and beautiful chamfers which some woods abound in.
1667. Milton, P. L., IX. 496. [The Serpent] toward Eve Addres’d his way, not with indented wave, Prone on the ground, as since, but on his reare.
1678. Moxon, Mech. Exerc., vi. 104. It hath its under flat cut into those fashioned waves you intend your work shall have.
1702. Petiver, Gazophyl., I. v. Concha Veneris … [is] easily distinguish’d from all others, by its peculiar Waves and spotted Belly.
1721. W. Gibson, Diet. Horses, i. 13. The Mane … is always the more graceful with a natural Weave from the Roots.
1795. Southey, Joan of Arc, X. (1853), 126. The pennons rolling their long waves Before the gale.
1866. Mrs. Whitney, Leslie Goldthwaite, iv. Freedom’s northern wind will take all the wave out of your hair.
1884. R. F. Burton, Bk. Sword, vii. 137. Often the waves [of sabre-blades] are broken into saw-teeth.
1895. M. Hewlett, Earthwork Tuscany, 75. A bush of yellow hair falling over his forehead in a wave.
b. An undulating line or streak of color.
1662. Merrett, trans. Neri’s Art of Glass, xlii. It will shew some waves, and divers colours.
1704. Newton, Optics, I. (1721), 34. If the Glass of the Prisms be … without those numberless Waves, or Curles which usually arise from Sand-holes.
1856. R. Knox, trans. Edwards’ Man. Zool., § 414. It [the cat] is of a brown colour, somewhat greyish, with deeper coloured transverse waves.
1891. Hardwicke’s Sci.-Gossip, XXVII. 15. The waves written by the syphon above the central line corresponding to the dots of the Morse Code.
c. Arch. An undulated molding; a cyma or ogee molding.
1663. Gerbier, Counsel, 70. The wave with Lace under it at one peny per foot. Ibid., 71. The upper Wave cut with Leaves at six pence per foot.
1825. Rickman, Archit. (ed. 3), 46. These mouldings are generally much ornamented, and the wave or zigzag ornament … is almost universal.
d. A wavy or zigzag pattern; something made in this pattern: see quots.
1845. G. Dodd, Brit. Manuf., Ser. V. 176. There are several descriptions of [straw-] plait made in England—such as … the ‘wave,’ the ‘diamond,’ &c.
1888. C. P. Brown, Cotton Manuf., 168. Waves, zigzag twill pattern.
5. Modern scientific uses.
a. Physics. Each of those rhythmic alterations of disturbance and recovery of configuration in successively contiguous portions of a fluid or solid mass, by which a state of motion travels in some direction without corresponding progressive movement of the particles successively affected. Examples are the waves in the surface of water (sense 1), the waves of the air which convey sound, and the (hypothetical) waves of the ether which are concerned in the transmission of light, heat and electricity.
Hertzian waves: a class of ether-waves (discovered by the German physicist Heinrich Hertz in 1888) similar to light waves but of much greater wavelength.
1832. Brewster, Nat. Magic, viii. (1833), 195. They will produce each equal waves of sound.
1833. [see wave-surface, -theory].
1839. G. Bird, Nat. Philos., 292. The waves of light, like those of sound, are transmitted in every direction.
1846. Greener, Sci. Gunnery, 50. It is necessary so to prolong the explosion, that the wave of vibration has time to travel throughout the whole of the mass acted upon.
1860. Tyndall, Glac., II. i. 227. An aërial wave of sound travels at about the rate of 1100 feet in a second. Ibid. (1863), Heat, viii. 257. The condensation and rarefaction [of the air] constitute what is called a sonorous pulse or wave.
1889. Rowland, in Amer. Jrnl. Math., XI. 378. Starting with very good conductors and very long waves, the electric current will be uniformly distributed throughout the section of the conductors.
1902. Kipling, ‘Wireless,’ in Scribner’s Mag., Aug., 136/2. Charged with Hertzian waves which vibrate, say, two hundred and thirty million times a second.
1920. C. G. Crawley, in Discovery, April, 115/2. These wireless waves are often called Hertzian waves.
b. Meteorol. A change of atmospheric pressure or temperature, consisting of gradual rise and fall or fall and rise, taking place successively at successive points in some particular line of direction on the earth’s surface. In popular language, a ‘heat-wave’ or a ‘cold wave’ denotes a spell of abnormal heat or cold, which is assumed to be travelling over the country in a particular direction.
1843. Sir J. F. W. Herschel, in Rep. Brit. Assoc., 61. If this minimum represent … the trough of a barometric wave which at 3 A.M. was vertically over Brussels, and at 11 A.M. over London, the wave must have been travelling westwards.
1846. W. R. Birt, in Rep. Brit. Assoc., I. 147. Now a wave generated in any way and approaching the continent of Europe from the north-west would most probably impinge on it with a high … crest…. Again a negative wave, with a deep trough … would present large fluctuations as it impinged on the land.
1901. Scotsman, 4 Oct., 5/1. When a cold wave strikes Northern Minnesota, there is no knowing where the thermometer may go.
c. Seismol. A seismic disturbance of a portion of the crust or surface of the earth, travelling continuously for a certain distance.
1862. R. Mallet, First Princ. Observ. Seismol., I. iv. 33. If an isolated wall … be subjected to the transit of an earth wave … the resulting fractures will vary with the direction of the wave-path.
1877. F. W. Rudler, Earthquake, in Encycl. Brit., VII. 609/2. From the seismic centre waves are propagated in all directions through the solid materials of the earth’s crust.
1886. J. Milne, Earthquakes, iii. 55. Hitherto we have chiefly considered earthquake vibrations; now we will say a few words about earthquake waves.
d. Phys. Wave of contraction, the onward contraction of a muscle from the point where the stimulus is applied. Wave of stimulation, the (hypothetical) impulse of molecular vibration travelling along a nerve from the point at which it is stimulated.
1851. Carpenter, Man. Phys. (ed. 2), 214. Successive contractions and relaxations may be produced … by a single prick with a scalpel; a sort of wave of contraction being transmitted in the direction of its length.
1885. Romanes, Jelly Fish, etc., i. 25. A stimulus applied to a nerveless muscle … giving rise to a visible wave of contraction, which spreads in all directions. Ibid. I shall always speak of muscle-fibres as conveying a visible wave of contraction, and of nerve-fibres as conveying an invisible, or molecular, wave of stimulation.
6. A book-name of certain geometrid moths.
1819. Samouelle, Entomol. Compend., 423. Geometra inornata. The plain Wave.
1832. J. Rennie, Consp. Butterfl. & Moths, 139. The Small White Wave (Emmelesia candidata, Stephens). Ibid., 140. The Small Fan-footed Wave (Ptychopoda dilutaria, Stephens). Ibid., 141. The Dwarf Cream Wave (Acidalia osseata, Stephens). Ibid., 143. The Subangled Wave (Timandra variegata, Stephens).
1882. Cassell’s Nat. Hist., VI. 67. The Acidalidæ or ‘Waves,’ comprise a large number of small species.
II. An act of waving.
7. A motion to and fro of the hand or of something held in the hand, used as a signal or as an expressive sign.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. xix. (Roxb.), 155/2. Termes used about the displaying or florishing of an ensigne…. A Wave, or plaine wave, is A Turne or florish.
1840. Dickens, Old C. Shop, xv. And so, with many waves of the hand, and cheering nods,… they parted company.
1854. Surtees, Handley Cr., i. (1901), I. 8. With a wave of his hat [he] brought the pack forward.
1883. D. C. Murray, Hearts, I. iii. 61. With a charming smile and a reassuring wave of the right hand.
1898. Kipling, Fleet in Being, i. 4. The man-of-war … must also be ready to drop three or four knots at the wave of a flag.
8. A swaying to and fro.
1648. Herrick, Hesper., Delight in Disorder, 9. A winning wave (deserving Note) In the tempestuous petticote.
1825. Scott, Talism., x. The point at which he had seen the last slight wave of the Templar’s mantle.
1849. M. Arnold, Obermann, xlii. Where with clear-rustling wave The scented pines of Switzerland Stand dark round thy green grave.
III. attrib. and Comb.
9. simple attrib., as wave-crest, -head, -ridge, -top, -water; (sense 2 d) wave-region; (sense 5 a) wave-problem, -transmission, -velocity.
1823. Scott, Peveril, xxvii. Motto, The restless foam Of the wild *wave-crest.
1849. Cupples, Green Hand, ii. (1856), 16. The *wave-heads … were crested here and there with light.
1910. S. P. Thomson, Ld. Kelvin, II. xxi. 862. Sir William read four papers bearing on *wave-problems.
1856. Olmsted, Slave States, 397. For an hour or two we got above the sandy zone, and into the … *‘wave’ region of the State. The surface here was extremely undulating.
1849. C. Brontë, Shirley, xiii. She rises high, and glides all revealed, on the dark *wave-ridge.
1893. Conan Doyle, Refugees, III. xxv. 30. For hours a glimpse could be caught of the boat, dwindling away on the *wave tops.
1907. V. Cornish, in Geogr. Jrnl., Jan., 23. The effect of this *wave-transmission is to diminish the initial inequality of slope.
1910. S. P. Thompson, Ld. Kelvin, II. xxi. 861. The proposition that the wave-velocity is double [that] of the group-velocity.
1889. Welch, Text Bk. Naval Archit., iii. 59. The amount of the buoyancy in *wave-water is also constantly varying.
b. objective, as wave-breaker, wave-drawing; also wave-subjected adj.
1764. Goldsm., Trav., 297. The wave-subjected soil [of Holland] Impels the native to repeated toil.
1881. Broadhouse, Mus. Acoustics, 59. Constant practice in wave-drawing … will soon familiarize the student [etc.].
1885. L. F. Vernon-Harcourt, Harbours & Docks, I. 93. The open jetty does not act as a wave-breaker.
c. similative, as wave-green; also with the sense ‘having a waved form or markings,’ as wave blade, -bladed, -breasted, -edged, -haired, -leaved, etc.
1877. Lane-Fox, Catal. Anthrop. Coll. Bethnal Green Branch S. Kens., 183. Malay Krisses, with *wave blades.
1866. W. J. Fitzpatrick, Sham Squire, 115. He … with a *wave-bladed dagger … made some stabs at the intruder.
1811. Shaw, Gen. Zool., VIII. 405. *Wave-breasted Parrakeet. Psittacus versicolor.
1884. R. F. Burton, Bk. Sword, vii. 137. The *wave-edged form [of blade] is well shown in an iron dagger.
1621. G. Sandys, Ovid’s Met., IX. (1626), 175. I … let my *waue-greene Mantle sink.
1866. Christina Rossetti, Prince’s Progr., x. A *wave-haired milkmaid.
1816–20. T. Green, Univ. Herbal, II. 828. Xysmalobium Undulatum; *Wave-leaved Xysmalobium.
d. locative, as wave-bowered, -reflected.
1812. Byron, Ch. Har., II. xxiv. Thus bending o’er the vessel’s laving side, To gaze on Dian’s wave-reflected sphere.
1820. Shelley, Prometh. Unb., III. ii. 32. Tracking their path … by the light of wave-reflected flowers.
1881. Rossetti, Ballads & Sonn., House of Life, lvi. The wave-bowered pearl.
e. instrumental, as wave-beaten, -buffeted, -dashed, -encircled, -hollowed, -lashed, -moist, -swept, -tossed, -washed, -wet, -worn, etc.
a. 1593. Marlowe, Ovid’s Eleg., I. xiv. 34. Such were they [her locks] as Diana painted stands All naked holding in her waue-moist hands.
1610. Shaks., Temp., II. i. 120. He … oared Himselfe … To th’ shore; that ore his waue-worne basis bowed As stooping to releeue him.
1741. Boyse, Patience, 200. On the sea-weed spray,… the wave-toss’d body lay.
1777. Potter, Æschylus, 51. The tort’ring sting Thence drove the wand’ring o’er the wave-wash’d strand.
1810. Scott, Lady of L., I. xiii. The shaggy mounds … wave-encircled, seem’d to float.
1819. Byron, Juan, II. cxcviii. Amidst the barren sand and rocks so rude She and her wave-worn love had made their bower.
1848. Lytton, K. Arthur, II. cvii. Wave-hollow’d caves.
1856. Lever, Martins of Cro’ M., xxiii. The dark cliffs and rugged crags, the wave-beaten rocks.
1857. Dickens, Dorrit, II. xx. Every wave-dashed, storm-beaten object.
1857. Dufferin, Lett. High Lat. (ed. 3), 225. A … channel, between two wave-lashed ridges of drift ice.
1876. Morris, Sigurd, II. 92. So Sigurd turned to the river and stood by the wave-wet strand.
1894. Outing, XXIV. 92/1. The long, wave-swept margin was left to the solitude of primeval nature.
10. Special comb.: wave-action (a) Geol., the action of water flowing in waves; (b) Gunnery, ‘abnormally high pressure in a gun from very large charges’ (Cent. Dict., 1891); wave-detector, an instrument designed to detect very feeble electric waves in wireless telegraphy; wave-disk, a metal disk with a waved edge, used in the wave-siren; wave-form (see quot. 1864); wave-front Physics, the continuous line or surface including all the waves or radiatory emissions which are in the same phase; wave-horse = SEA-HORSE 5; wave-length, the length of a wave as measured from crest to crest or from hollow to hollow; wave-making, the production of waves by the movement of a floating body on the surface of the water; also attrib.; wave-mark (a) Geol. (see quot. 1863); (b) a wavy marking, stain or blemish; so also wave-marked a., wave-marking Geol.; wave-meter Electr. ‘an instrument for determining the wave-form of alternating currents’ (W., 1911); wave-motion, motion in curves alternately concave and convex; wave-motor, a machine or apparatus designed to utilize the energy in the waves of water as a motive power; also attrib.; wave-path Seismol. (see quot. 1886); wave-rainbow, a rainbow formed on the spray of sea-waves; wave-rate Acoustics, the rate of vibration of a sounding body in a given time; wave resistance, the retarding force of the action of waves of water; wave screen (see quot.); wave-shell Physics, each of the imaginary concentric spherical layers in any medium traversed by a wave, such that the vibration of the particles of the layer is always in the same phase; wave-siren, a form of the SIREN (sb. 7) in which a current of air is driven through a narrow slit against an undulatory curve on the periphery of a cylinder or disk; wave-slope, the angle of inclination of the surface of a wave to the horizontal; wave-surface Physics, a geometrical surface that is the locus of all points reached at one instant by an undulatory agitation propagated from any center; wave-system Ship-building, see quot. and WAVE-LINE 1; wave theory = undulatory theory (see UNDULATORY 1 c); wave-train Physics (see quot.); wave-trap, winding (see quots.); † wave work, watered work (see quot.). Also WAVE-LIKE a. and adv., WAVE-LINE.
1880. Dana, Man. Geol. (ed. 3), 910 Index. *Wave-action on coral reefs.
1886. A. Winchell, Walks Geol. Field, 63. Here the torrential action was less turbulent: it was perhaps wave-action along a beach.
1905. Athenæum, 18 March, 339/2. The centre of interest in wireless telegraphy seems to be shifting from the *wave-detector or coherer to the means of producing the energy required to act upon it.
1890. S. P. Thompson, in Nature (1891), 8 Jan., 226/2. Two such *wave-disks, looking rather like circular saws with irregular teeth.
1846. W. R. Birt, Rep. Brit. Assoc., I. 138. Should the rarefying process cease,… not only will the *wave-form be continued, but also the wave-motion.
1889. Welch, Text Bk. Naval Archit., iii. 58. It is only the wave form which advances, and not the water composing that wave.
1867. Tait, Quaternions, xi. 289. The planes of polarization of the two rays whose *wave-fronts are parallel, bisect the angles [etc.].
1888. Rutley, Rock-Forming Min., 57. The plane wave-surfaces or wave-fronts of the two rays will respectively be represented by the tangent planes.
1888. Rider Haggard, Mr. Meeson’s Will, xi. (1897), 140. They … looked out across the troubled ocean. There was nothing in sight … but the white *wave-horses.
1871. Schellen, Spectrum Anal. (ed. 2), § 17. 83. The rays of shortest *wave-length, namely the violet, are more easily influenced by the increased resistance which the glass offers to the passage of the light.
1881. Broadhouse, Mus. Acoustics, 66. The fork … condenses … a bulk of air equal in length to the wave-length of its own pitch.
1907. V. Cornish, in Geogr. Jrnl., Jan., 25. The water may commonly be seen to grow in the space of a few yards to a uniform wave-length of about 2 feet.
1877. W. H. White, Naval Archit., xi. 447. Mr. Scott Russell first drew attention to the importance of *wave-making resistance.
1878. D. Kemp, Man. Yacht Sailing, vi. 41. There are only two principal sources of resistance, and they are consequent upon surface friction and wave-making.
1863. Dana, Man. Geol. (ed. 3), 94. *Wave-marks.—Faint outlinings, of curved form, on a sandstone layer, like the outline left by a wave along the limit where it dies out upon a beach.
1902. Westm. Gaz., 14 April, 4/2. When the novice finds a few pinholes in his negatives, or wave marks on parts of the image. Ibid. The wave-marks were the result of careless development.
1903. Amer. Geol., June, 356. The top of the Lorraine is formed by a *wavemarked layer of limestone. Ibid. Numerous other instances of *wavemarking at this horizon might be given.
1905. Athenæum, 27 May, 662/2. Prof. Fleming’s direct-reading cymometer or *wave-meter, for measuring the length of the waves used in wireless telegraphy.
1846. W. R. Birt, in Rep. Brit. Assoc., I. 135. In contemplating the transference of the barometric maxima and minima, we regard only the *wave-motion—but very different must be the air-motion.
1882. P. G. Tait, Light, in Encycl. Brit., XIV. 603. The essential characteristic of wave-motion is that a disturbance of some kind is handed on from one portion of a solid or fluid mass to another.
1898. Daily News, 9 June, 7/2. The Linden *wave-motor boat. Ibid. (1899), 15 April, 8/6. A wave-motor, which may be seen working off Dover.
1862. R. Mallet, First Princ. Observ. Seismol., I. iv. 35. The line of transit, or *wave-path.
1886. J. Milne, Earthquakes, i. 9. The radial lines along which an earthquake may be propagated from the centrum are called ‘wave-paths.’
1848. Tennyson, in Ld. Tennyson, Mem. (1897), I. 275. Sat watching *wave-rainbows [at the Lizard].
1903. G. M. Stratton, Exper. Psychol., v. 83. Musical notes whose *wave-rates do not differ at least a fifth of a vibration a second.
1889. Welch, Text Bk. Naval Archit., iii. 56. *Wave resistance is by far the most powerful agent in extinguishing the oscillations.
1883. Fisheries Exhib. Catal., 48. *Wave Screen, or Breakwater, for breaking the force of the sea, at entrance of bar … or elsewhere.
1877. F. W. Rudler, Earthquake, in Encycl. Brit., VII. 610/1. The points at which a *wave-shell reaches the surface form a curve which is conveniently called a coseismal line.
1881. Nature, 18 Aug., 359/2. Helmholtz … has constructed a new instrument, the *wave-siren.
1890. S. P. Thompson in Nature (1891), 15 Jan., 250/2. Dr. Kœnig had recourse to the wave-siren, an earlier invention of his own.
1877. W. H. White, Naval Archit., vi. 212. In considering the sufficiency of the range of the curve of stability for any vessel, it is desirable to regard it as abridged by this 8 or 10 degrees, in order to allow for the *wave slope.
1833. MacCullagh, Collected Wks. (1880), 34. In this theory, the surface of waves, or the *wave surface, is a geometrical surface used to determine the directions and velocities of refracted or reflected rays, being the surface of a sphere in a singly refracting medium; a double surface, [etc.].
1860. Cayley, Math. Papers (1891), IV. 420. Some very beautiful results in relation to the Wave Surface have been recently obtained by Herr Zech.
1910. S. P. Thompson, Ld. Kelvin, II. xx. 820. Stokes has found by minute experiment that the Huygens wave-surface is most accurately obeyed by light.
1886. Encycl. Brit., XXI. 66/2. His [J. Scott Russell’s] observations led him to propose and experiment on a new system of shaping vessels, which is known as the *wave system.
1833. MacCullagh, Collected Wks. (1880), 34. On the *Wave Theory of Light.
1873. Cooke, Chem., 22. I cannot agree with those who regard the wave-theory of light as an established principle of science.
1897. E. L. Nichols & Franklin, Elem. Physics, III. 12. A periodic disturbance sends out what is called a train of waves, each one of which is exactly like its forerunner…. Graphic representation of *wave trains.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., *Wave-trap (Hydraulic Engineering), a widening inwards of the sides of piers, to afford space for storm-waves which roll in at the entrance to spread and extend themselves.
1893. Sloane, Electr. Dict., *Wave Winding, a method of winding disc and drum armatures.
1601. Holland, Pliny, VIII. xlviii. I. 228. The very roiall robe … made … after the manner of water-chamlot in *wave worke [L. togam undulatam].
