different between wave vs oscillate

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: w?v, IPA^(key): /we?v/
• Homophone: waive
• Rhymes: -e?v

Etymology 1

From Middle English waven, from Old English wafian (“to wave, fluctuate, waver in mind, wonder”), from Proto-Germanic *wab?n?, *wabjan? (“to wander, sway”), from Proto-Indo-European *web?- (“to move to and from, wander”). Cognate with Middle High German waben (“to wave”), German wabern (“to waft”), Icelandic váfa (“to fluctuate, waver, doubt”). See also waver.

Verb

wave (third-person singular simple present waves, present participle waving, simple past and past participle waved)

1. (intransitive) To move back and forth repeatedly and somewhat loosely.
2. (intransitive) To move one’s hand back and forth (generally above the shoulders) in greeting or departure.
3. (transitive, metonymically) 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.
   • She spoke, and bowing waved / Dismissal.

4. (intransitive) To have an undulating or wavy form.
5. (transitive) To raise into inequalities of surface; to give an undulating form or surface to.
6. (transitive) 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; […].

7. (intransitive, baseball) To swing and miss at a pitch.

8. (transitive) To cause to move back and forth repeatedly.

9. (transitive, metonymically) To signal (someone or something) with a waving movement.
10. (intransitive, obsolete) To fluctuate; to waver; to be in an unsettled state.
11. (intransitive, ergative) To move like a wave, or by floating; to waft.

Hyponyms

• wave off

Derived terms

• waver

Related terms

• wave the white flag

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English *wave, partially from waven (“to fluctuate, wave”) (see above) and partially from Middle English wawe, waghe (“wave”), from Old English w?g (“a wave, billow, motion, water, flood, sea”), from Proto-Germanic *w?gaz (“motion, storm, wave”), from Proto-Indo-European *we??- (“to drag, carry”). Cognate with North Frisian weage (“wave, flood, sea”), German Woge (“wave”), French vague (“wave”) (from Germanic), Gothic ???????????????? (w?gs, “a wave”). See also waw.

Noun

wave (plural waves)

1. A moving disturbance in the level of a body of liquid; an undulation.
2. (poetic) The ocean.
   • 1895, Fiona Macleod (William Sharp), The Sin-Eater and Other Tales

     […] your father Murtagh Ross, and his lawful childless wife, Dionaid, and his sister Anna—one and all, they lie beneath the green wave or in the brown mould.

3. (physics) A moving disturbance in the energy level of a field.

4. A shape that alternatingly curves in opposite directions.

5. Any of a number of species of moths in the geometrid subfamily Sterrhinae, which have wavy markings on the wings.
6. A loose back-and-forth movement, as of the hands.

   He dismissed her with a wave of the hand.

7. (figuratively) A sudden, but temporary, uptick in something.

   Synonym: rush
8. (video games, by extension) One of the successive swarms of enemies sent to attack the player in certain games.
9. (usually "the wave") 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.

Synonyms

• (an undulation): und (obsolete, rare)
• (group activity): Mexican wave (chiefly Commonwealth)

Hyponyms

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

References

• wave at OneLook Dictionary Search
• wave in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Etymology 3

See waive.

Verb

wave (third-person singular simple present waves, present participle waving, simple past and past participle waved)

1. Obsolete spelling of waive

Middle English

Verb

wave

1. Alternative form of waven

English

Etymology

From Latin ?scill?tus, perfect passive participle of Latin ?scill? (“swing”), from ?scillum (“a swing”), usually identified with ?scillum (“a little face or mask hung on a tree that sways with the wind”), diminutive of ?s (“mouth, face”).

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /??s?le?t/

Verb

oscillate (third-person singular simple present oscillates, present participle oscillating, simple past and past participle oscillated)

1. (intransitive) To swing back and forth, especially if with a regular rhythm.

2. (intransitive) To vacillate between conflicting opinions, etc.

3. (intransitive) To vary above and below a mean value.

Synonyms

• vacillate

Derived terms

• oscillator

Related terms

• oscillation

Translations

See also

• undulate

Further reading

• oscillate in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• oscillate in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• oscillate at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

• Tesla coil, lactisole, localites, teocallis

Italian

Verb

oscillate

1. second-person plural present indicative of oscillare
2. second-person plural imperative of oscillare
3. feminine plural of oscillato

Anagrams

• alcoliste
• costellai
• scolliate
• sollecita
• solletica