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Wag vs Wave - What's the difference?

wag | wave |

Wave is a romanization of wag.



As verbs the difference between wag and wave

is that wag is to swing from side to side, especially of an animal's tail while wave is to move back and forth repeatedly.

As nouns the difference between wag and wave

is that wag is an oscillating movement while wave is a moving disturbance in the level of a body of water; an undulation.

wag

English

Verb

  • To swing from side to side, especially of an animal's tail
  • * Shakespeare
    • No discerner durst wag his tongue in censure.
  • * Bible, Jer. xviii. 16
    • Every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished, and wag his head.
  • (UK, Australia, slang) To play truant from school.
  • * 1848 , Charles Dickens, Dombey and Son, xxii
    • "My misfortunes all began in wagging,'' Sir; but what could I do, exceptin' ''wag''?" "Excepting what?" said Mr. Carker. "''Wag,'' Sir. ''Wagging'' from school." "Do you mean pretending to go there, and not going?" said Mr. Carker. "Yes, Sir, that's ''wagging, Sir."
  • * 1901 , William Sylvester Walker, In the Blood, i. 13
    • They had "wagged it" from school, as they termed it, which..meant truancy in all its forms.
  • (obsolete) To be in action or motion; to move; to get along; to progress; to stir.
  • * Shakespeare
    • "Thus we may see," quoth he, "how the world wags ."
  • (obsolete) To go; to depart.
  • * Shakespeare
    • I will provoke him to 't, or let him wag .

    Derived terms

    * (to not go to school) play the wag; hop the wag; wag it * to finger-wag

    See also

    * waggle (frequentative) * wiggle

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • An oscillating movement.
    • The wag of my dog's tail expresses happiness.
  • A witty person.

    • See also

    * skivitis

    References

    * The Oxford English Dictionary, (1989) Accessed 23 Feb. 2006. * Jonathon Green, "wag," The Cassell Dictionary of Slang, (1998) p. 1257.

    Anagrams

    * ----

    wave

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) waven, from (etyl) .

    Verb

    (wav)
  • (lb) To move back and forth repeatedly.
  • :
  • *{{quote-news, year=2011, date=October 1, author=Tom Fordyce, work=BBC Sport
    • , title= 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.}}
  • (lb) To wave one’s hand in greeting or departure.
  • :
  • (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.
  • *
  • *: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.
  • :
  • (lb) To cause to move back and forth repeatedly.
  • :
  • (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.
    • Derived terms
    * wave off * waver * wave the white flag

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) *.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A moving disturbance in the level of a body of water; an undulation.
    • The wave traveled from the center of the lake before breaking on the shore.
  • (physics) A moving disturbance in the energy level of a field.
    • Gravity waves , while predicted by theory for decades, have been notoriously difficult to detect.
  • A shape that alternatingly curves in opposite directions.
    • Her hair had a nice wave to it.
    sine wave
  • (figuratively) A sudden unusually large amount of something that is temporarily experienced.
    • 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.
  • * {{quote-news
    • , year=2011 , date=January 11 , author=Jonathan Stevenson , title=West Ham 2 - 1 Birmingham , work=BBC 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.}}
  • A sideway movement of the hand(s).
    • With a wave of the hand.
  • 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"
    • Derived terms
    * Elliott wave * make waves * Mexican wave * waveband * wave field synthesis * wave function * waveguide * wavelength * wavelet * wave mechanics * wave number * wave packet * wave-particle duality * wave ski * wave train * wave vector * wavy
    Synonyms
    * (an undulation) (l)

    Etymology 3

    See waive.

    Verb

    (wav)
    • English ergative verbs