Billow vs Waft - What's the difference?
billow | waft |
A large wave, swell, surge, or undulating mass of something, such as water, smoke, fabric or sound
* Cowper
* 18?? , :
* 1922 , :
To surge or roll in billows
* 1920 , , The Understanding Heart , Chapter II:
To swell out or bulge
(ergative) To (cause to) float easily or gently through the air.
* A breeze came in through the open window and wafted her sensuous perfume into my eager nostrils.
* 1922 , (James Joyce), Chapter 13
* 1914 , Hugh G. Evelyn-White’s translation of Hymn to Aphrodite from the .[http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0138%3Ahymn%3D6]
To be moved, or to pass, on a buoyant medium; to float.
* Dryden
To give notice to by waving something; to wave the hand to; to beckon.
* Shakespeare
A light breeze.
Something (a scent or odor), such as a perfume, that is carried through the air.
* 1908 ,
* 2010 September, "The SLM'' Calendar", , ISSN 1090-5723, volume 16, issue 9, page 170:
(nautical) A flag, (also called a waif or wheft), used to indicate wind direction or, with a knot tied in the center, as a signal.
As nouns the difference between billow and waft
is that billow is a large wave, swell, surge, or undulating mass of something, such as water, smoke, fabric or sound while waft is a light breeze.As verbs the difference between billow and waft
is that billow is to surge or roll in billows while waft is (ergative) to (cause to) float easily or gently through the air.billow
English
Noun
(en noun)- whom the winds waft where'er the billows roll
- And the brooklet has found the billow / Though they flowed so far apart.
- Have the swirling sands engulfed them, on a noon of storm when the desert rose like the sea, and rolled its tawny billows on the walled gardens of the green and fragrant lands?
Verb
(en verb)- During the preceding afternoon a heavy North Pacific fog had blown in … Scudding eastward from the ocean, it had crept up and over the redwood-studded crests of the Coast Range mountains,
References
waft
English
Verb
(en verb)- Through the open window of the church the fragrant incense was wafted and with it the fragrant names of her who was conceived without stain of original sin…
- There the moist breath of the western wind wafted her over the waves of the loud-moaning sea in soft foam, and there the gold-filleted Hours welcomed her joyously.
- And now the shouts waft near the citadel.
- But soft: who wafts us yonder?
Noun
(en noun)- Meanwhile, the wafts from his old home pleaded, whispered, conjured, and finally claimed him imperiously.
- Patrol Magazine says of this Oxford, Miss., band: "Guitars are responsible for every noise in Colour Revolt's mix—not a single note of piano, waft of synthesizer, or evidence of electronic tampering are to be found."