Sway vs Wave - What's the difference?
sway | wave |
The act of swaying; a swaying motion; a swing or sweep of a weapon.
A rocking or swinging motion.
Influence, weight, or authority that inclines to one side; as, the sway of desires.
Preponderance; turn or cast of balance.
Rule; dominion; control.
A switch or rod used by thatchers to bind their work.
The maximum amplitude of a vehicle's lateral motion
To move or swing from side to side; or backward and forward; to rock.
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*:Breezes blowing from beds of iris quickened her breath with their perfume; she saw the tufted lilacs sway in the wind, and the streamers of mauve-tinted wistaria swinging, all a-glisten with golden bees; she saw a crimson cardinal winging through the foliage, and amorous tanagers flashing like scarlet flames athwart the pines.
To move or wield with the hand; to swing; to wield.
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*(Edmund Spenser) (c.1552–1599)
*:As sparkles from the anvil rise, / When heavy hammers on the wedge are swayed .
To influence or direct by power, authority, persuasion, or by moral force; to rule; to govern; to guide. Compare persuade .
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*(John Dryden) (1631-1700)
*:This was the race / To sway the world, and land and sea subdue.
To cause to incline or swing to one side, or backward and forward; to bias; to turn; to bend; warp.
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*(John Tillotson) (1630-1694)
*:Let not temporal and little advantages sway you against a more durable interest.
(lb) To hoist (a mast or yard) into position.
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To be drawn to one side by weight or influence; to lean; to incline.
*(Francis Bacon) (1561-1626)
*:The balance sways on our part.
To have weight or influence.
*(Richard Hooker) (1554-1600)
*:The example of sundry churchesdoth sway much.
To bear sway; to rule; to govern.
*(William Shakespeare) (c.1564–1616)
*:Hadst thou swayed as kings should do.
(lb) To move back and forth repeatedly.
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*{{quote-news, year=2011, date=October 1, author=Tom Fordyce, work=BBC Sport
, title= (lb) To wave one’s hand in greeting or departure.
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(lb) To have an undulating or wavy form.
(lb) To raise into inequalities of surface; to give an undulating form or surface to.
*(William Shakespeare) (c.1564–1616)
*:horns whelked and waved like the enridged sea
(lb) To produce waves to the hair.
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*:There was also hairdressing: hairdressing, too, really was hairdressing in those times — no running a comb through it and that was that. It was curled, frizzed, waved', put in curlers overnight, ' waved with hot tongs;.
To swing and miss at a pitch.
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(lb) To cause to move back and forth repeatedly.
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(lb) To signal (someone or something) with a waving movement.
To fluctuate; to waver; to be in an unsettled state.
*(William Shakespeare) (c.1564–1616)
*:He waved indifferently 'twixt doing them neither good nor harm.
To move like a wave, or by floating; to waft.
:(Sir Thomas Browne)
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.
*(William Shakespeare) (c.1564–1616)
*:Look, with what courteous action / It waves you to a more removed ground.
* (1809-1892)
*:She spoke, and bowing waved / Dismissal.
A moving disturbance in the level of a body of water; an undulation.
(physics) A moving disturbance in the energy level of a field.
A shape that alternatingly curves in opposite directions.
(figuratively) A sudden unusually large amount of something that is temporarily experienced.
* {{quote-news
, year=2011
, date=January 11
, author=Jonathan Stevenson
, title=West Ham 2 - 1 Birmingham
, work=BBC
A sideway movement of the hand(s).
A group activity in a crowd imitating a wave going through water, where people in successive parts of the crowd stand and stretch upward, then sit. Usually referred to as "the wave"
As nouns the difference between sway and wave
is that sway is the act of swaying; a swaying motion; a swing or sweep of a weapon while wave is a moving disturbance in the level of a body of water; an undulation.As verbs the difference between sway and wave
is that sway is to move or swing from side to side; or backward and forward; to rock while wave is to move back and forth repeatedly.sway
English
(wikipedia sway)Noun
(en noun)- The old song caused a little sway in everyone in the room.
- I doubt I'll hold much sway with someone so powerful.
Verb
(en verb)See also
* persuadeAnagrams
* * English ergative verbswave
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) waven, from (etyl) .Verb
(wav)Rugby World Cup 2011: England 16-12 Scotland, passage=But the World Cup winning veteran's left boot was awry again, the attempt sliced horribly wide of the left upright, and the saltires were waving aloft again a moment later when a long pass in the England midfield was picked off to almost offer up a breakaway try.}}
Derived terms
* wave off * waver * wave the white flagEtymology 2
From (etyl) *.Noun
(en noun)- The wave traveled from the center of the lake before breaking on the shore.
- Gravity waves , while predicted by theory for decades, have been notoriously difficult to detect.
- Her hair had a nice wave to it.
- sine wave
- A wave of shoppers stampeded through the door when the store opened for its Christmas discount special.
- A wave of retirees began moving to the coastal area.
- A wave of emotion overcame her when she thought about her son who was killed in battle.
citation, page= , passage=Foster had been left unsighted by Scott Dann's positioning at his post, but the goalkeeper was about to prove his worth to Birmingham by keeping them in the game with a series of stunning saves as West Ham produced waves' after ' wave of attack in their bid to find a crucial second goal.}}
- With a wave of the hand.