different between billow vs willow

English

Etymology

From Middle English *bilowe, *bilewe, *bilwe, *bil?e, borrowed from Old Norse bylgja, from Proto-Germanic *bulgij?. Cognates include Danish bølge, Norwegian Bokmål bølge, Norwegian Nynorsk bylgje, Middle High German bulga and Low German bulge.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?b?l??/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?b?lo?/

• Rhymes: -?l??

Noun

billow (plural billows)

1. A large wave, swell, surge, or undulating mass of something, such as water, smoke, fabric or sound
   • 1782, William Cowper, "Expostulation", in Poems by William Cowper, of the Inner Temple, Esq..

     […] Whom the winds waft where'er the billows roll, / From the world's girdle to the frozen pole;

   • 1842, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, "The Wreck of the Hesperus", in Ballads and Other Poems.

   • 1873, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, "The Brook and the Wave" in Birds of Passage:

     And the brooklet has found the billow / Though they flowed so far apart.

   • 1893 August, Rudyard Kipling, "Seal Lullaby", in "The White Seal", National Review.

Translations

Verb

billow (third-person singular simple present billows, present participle billowing, simple past and past participle billowed)

1. To surge or roll in billows.
   • 1942, Emily Carr, The Book of Small, “Chain Gang,”^[1]

     The nuns' veils billowed and flapped behind the snaky line of girls as if the sisters were shooing the serpent from the Garden of Eden.
2. To swell out or bulge.

Translations

References

English

Etymology

From Middle English wilwe, welew, variant of wilghe, from Old English weli?, from Proto-West Germanic *wilig, from Proto-Indo-European *welik- (compare (Arcadian) Ancient Greek ????? (helík?), Hittite ???????????? (welku, “grass”)), from *wel- (“twist, turn”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?w?l.??/
• Rhymes: -?l??
• (US) IPA^(key): /?w?lo?/
• Rhymes: -?lo?

Noun

willow (countable and uncountable, plural willows)

1. Any of various deciduous trees or shrubs in the genus Salix, in the willow family Salicaceae, found primarily on moist soils in cooler zones in the northern hemisphere.

   • […] and through the middle of this forest, from wall to wall, ran a winding line of brilliant green which marked the course of cottonwoods and willows.

2. The wood of these trees.
3. (cricket, colloquial) A cricket bat.
4. (baseball, slang, 1800s) The baseball bat.
5. A rotating spiked drum used to open and clean cotton heads.

Synonyms

• withy

Derived terms

• French willow
• Red Willow County
• Red Willow Creek
• weeping willow
• willow in the wind

Translations

Verb

willow (third-person singular simple present willows, present participle willowing, simple past and past participle willowed)

1. (transitive) To open and cleanse (cotton, flax, wool, etc.) by means of a willow.
2. (intransitive) To form a shape or move in a way similar to the long, slender branches of a willow.
   • 1928, Robert Byron, The Station: Travels to the Holy Mountain of Greece, Chapter 12,^[1]

     Willowing over the rough cobbles of the little pier stepped a thin, bent figure, adorned with a silver nannygoat’s beard and bobbling eyes interrupted by the rim of a pair of pince-nez.

   • 1930, Talbot Mundy, Black Light, Chapter 7,^[2]

     Joe’s impulse was to sketch her, with her shadow willowing beyond her on the mouse-gray paving-stone; but his left fist, obeying instinct, remained clenched behind his back […]

   • 1985, Martin Booth, Hiroshima Joe, New York: Picador, p. 394,^[3]

     It was floating a foot under the surface. The eyes were holes. The mouth was a slit cavern of darkness. The hair willowed around the scalp.

   • 2013, Dean Koontz, Wilderness, Bantam Books,^[4]

     The draft-drawn smoke willowed down through the hole and across my face, but I didn’t worry about coughing or sneezing.