What is the difference between wave and swell?
wave | swell |
(lb) To move back and forth repeatedly.
:
*{{quote-news, year=2011, date=October 1, author=Tom Fordyce, work=BBC Sport
, title= (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.
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"
To become bigger, especially due to being engorged.
* Shakespeare
To cause to become bigger.
* Atterbury
* {{quote-book, year=1905, author=
, title=
, chapter=2 * 2013 June 18, (Simon Romero), "
To grow gradually in force or loudness.
To raise to arrogance; to puff up; to inflate.
To be raised to arrogance.
* Shakespeare
* Sir Walter Scott
To be elated; to rise arrogantly.
* Dryden
To be turgid, bombastic, or extravagant.
To protuberate; to bulge out.
The act of swelling.
Increase of power in style, or of rhetorical force.
* Landor:
A long series of ocean waves, generally produced by wind, and lasting after the wind has ceased.
* 1883 , , Treasure Island , ch. 24:
(music) A gradual crescendo followed by diminuendo.
* , chapter=5
, title= (music) A device for controlling the volume of a pipe organ.
(music) A division in a pipe organ, usually the largest enclosed division.
A hillock or similar raised area of terrain.
* 1909 , , The Last of the Chiefs , ch. 2:
(informal) A person who is dressed in a fancy or elegant manner.
* , "The Kickleburys on the Rhine" in The Christmas Books of Mr. M. A. Titmarsh :
* 1887 , , The Cash Boy , ch. 9:
(informal) A person of high social standing; an important person.
* 1864 , , The Small House at Allington , ch. 2:
* 1906 , , The Trespasser , ch. 8:
Excellent.
* 2012 , (Ariel Levy), "The Space In Between", The New Yorker , 10 Sep 2012:
In intransitive terms the difference between wave and swell
is that wave is to have an undulating or wavy form while swell is to be raised to arrogance.In transitive terms the difference between wave and swell
is that wave is to signal (someone or something) with a waving movement while swell is to raise to arrogance; to puff up; to inflate.As an adjective swell is
excellent.wave
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.
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 * wavySynonyms
* (an undulation) (l)Etymology 3
See waive.swell
English
Verb
- Monarchs to behold the swelling scene!
- Rains and dissolving snow swell the rivers in spring.
- It is low ebb with his accuser when such peccadilloes are put to swell the charge.
citation, passage=For this scene, a large number of supers are engaged, and in order to further swell the crowd, practically all the available stage hands have to ‘walk on’ dressed in various coloured dominoes, and all wearing masks.}}
Protests Widen as Brazilians Chide Leaders," New York Times (retrieved 21 June 2013):
- After a harsh police crackdown last week fueled anger and swelled protests, President Dilma Rousseff, a former guerrilla who was imprisoned under the dictatorship and has now become the target of pointed criticism herself, tried to appease dissenters by embracing their cause on Tuesday.
- The organ music swelled .
- to be swelled with pride or haughtiness
- Here he comes, swelling like a turkey cock.
- You swell at the tartan, as the bull is said to do at scarlet.
- Your equal mind yet swells not into state.
- swelling''' words; a '''swelling style
- A cask swells in the middle.
Noun
(en noun)- the swell and subsidence of his periods
- There was a great, smooth swell upon the sea.
The Mirror and the Lamp, passage=He was thinking; but the glory of the song, the swell from the great organ, the clustered lights, […], the height and vastness of this noble fane, its antiquity and its strength—all these things seemed to have their part as causes of the thrilling emotion that accompanied his thoughts.}}
- Off on the crest of a swell a moving figure was seen now and then. "Antelope," said the hunters.
- It costs him no more to wear all his ornaments about his distinguished person than to leave them at home. If you can be a swell at a cheap rate, why not?
- He was dressed in a flashy style, not unlike what is popularly denominated a swell .
- "I am not in Mr Crosbie's confidence. He is in the General Committee Office, I know; and, I believe, has pretty nearly the management of the whole of it." . . .
- "I'll tell you what he is, Bell; Mr Crosbie is a swell'." And Lilian Dale was right; Mr Crosbie was a ' swell .
- You buy a lot of Indian or halfbreed loafers with beaver-skins and rum, go to the Mount of the Burning Arrows, and these fellows dance round you and call you one of the lost race, the Mighty Men of the Kimash Hills. And they'll do that while the rum lasts. Meanwhile you get to think yourself a devil of a swell —you and the gods!
Synonyms
* (person dressed in a fancy or elegant manner) dandy, dude, toff * (person of high social standing) toffDerived terms
* ground swell, groundswell * upswell * wind swellAdjective
(en-adj)- Orgasms are swell , but they are not the remedy to every injustice.