wavy, a. (and n.)
(ˈweɪvɪ)
Also 8 Sc. wavey.
[f. wave n. or v. + -y.]
A. adj.
1. a. Full of waves, abounding in waves, billowy.
| 1593 Nashe Christ's T. H 3 b, The waters..putting all theyr wauy shoulders together, bare the whole shole of them [sc. the dead carcases] before them. 1685 Dryden tr. Lucretius i. 10 For thee the Ocean smiles, and smooths her wavy breast. 1712 Broome Iliad xv. III. 208 They..Travers'd the Mountains, and the Wavy Main. 1816 J. N. Brewer Beauties Eng. & Wales X. iv. 28 note, In this fine and bold reach the waters of the Thames are more subject to wavy roughness, than in any other part west of the ancient bridge of London. 1887 Morris Odyss. xi. 253 Then under the wavy deep he dived adown once more. |
b. poet. Pertaining to waves of the sea.
| 1725 Pope Odyss. xii. 256 Strain ev'ry nerve, and bid the vessel fly. If from yon justling rocks and wavy war Jove safety grants; he grants it to your care. |
2. transf. a. Said of the air, clouds, etc.
| c 1586 C'tess Pembroke Ps. lxviii. iv, [The dove] That glides with feathered oare through wavy sky. 1619 Bp. J. Williams Serm. Apparell (1620) 5 The wavie Curtaines of the Ayre about us. 1794–6 Coleridge Relig. Musings 245 Then o'er the wild and wavy chaos rush And tame the outrageous mass. 1844 Kinglake Eothen xvii, The fair, wavy cloud that fled in the morning. |
b. Path. wavy breathing,
wavy respiration: respiration in which the inspiratory, and sometimes the expiratory, sounds are not continuous but broken into two or more separate parts.
| 1898 Allbutt's Syst. Med. V. 203 Jerky, interrupted, or wavy breathing. 1913 Dorland Med. Dict. (ed. 7) s.v. Respiration, Wavy respiration. |
3. fig. Fluctuating, wavering, changing.
| 1795 Coleridge Friend i. xvi. (1863) II. 20 When the public feelings are wavy and tumultuous, artful demagogues may create this opinion. c 1825 Beddoes Poems, Sacrif. self-compensated, Weighing well man's frail and perilous tenure Of all good in the restless wavy world. |
4. a. Moving to and fro or up and down with a sinuous, wave-like motion.
| 1700 Prior Carmen Sec. xxvi, Let her glad Vallies smile with wavy Corn. 1708 J. Philips Cyder i. 61 Where full-ear'd Sheaves of Rye Grow wavy on the Tilth. 1816 Keats ‘I stood Tip-toe’ 73 Where swarms of minnows show their little heads, Staying their wavy bodies 'gainst the streams. 1830 Tennyson Dying Swan 38 The wavy swell of the soughing reeds. 1884 Manch. Exam. 30 Sept. 5/7 This rolling sea of wavy grass. |
b. Of movements: Taking place in undulating curves, sinuous.
| 1836 Blackw. Mag. XXXIX. 439 [She] spread out her white canvass to the freshening breeze, while winging her wavy way over the blue Atlantic. 1856 Kane Arctic Expl. I. xxxi. 421 An active wavy movement [of the Aurora], dissipating itself into barely-perceptible cirrhus. 1859 Jephson Brittany xii. 201 Representing the serpent's teeth, or his wavy motion, or his circular figure. |
5. Of ground, the surface of the country: Rising and falling gently in a succession of rounded heights and hollows.
| 1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. I. 143 The lofty mountains of the other class have a very different aspect. At a distance their tops are seen, in wavy ridges, of the very colour of the clouds. 1789 J. Williams Min. Kingd. I. 114 A wavy country, which gently swells into broad ridges. 1891 Huxley in L. Huxley Life & Lett. (1900) II. 285 A fine wavy chalk down with ‘cwms’ and soft turfy ridges. |
6. a. Forming an undulating line or a series of wave-like curves. Also, having an undulating margin.
| a 1701 Maundrell Journ. Jerus. (1707) 6 The sides of this Fissure are firm and solid Rock, perpendicular and smooth, only seeming to lie in a wavy form all down, as it were to comply with the motion of the Water. 1725 Pope Odyss. iv. 202 Such wavy ringlets o'er his shoulders flow. 1726 Leoni Alberti's Archit. I. 47 The Wall..must be..exactly even.., so as not in any part to swell out or sink in, or to be wavy. 1738 Logan in Rigaud Corr. Sci. Men (1841) I. 339 A straight rod or line, viewed at some little distance through the wavy glass of a window. 1839 Ure Dict. Arts etc. 385 If these [Damascus bars] be drawn in length, the veins will be longitudinal;..if they be made wavy in the two directions, undulated veins will be produced like those in the oriental damascus. 1846 Landor Imag. Conv., Landor, Engl. Visitor, & Florentine Wks. I. 340/2 Byron dealt chiefly in felt and furbelow, wavy Damascus daggers, and pocket pistols studded with paste. 1858 G. Macdonald Phantastes i. (1878) 10 Her dark hair flowed behind, wavy but uncurled. 1882 Caulfeild & Saward Dict. Needlework 195 Wavy Stitch, a raised Couching. 1888 Jacobi Printers' Vocab., Wavy rule, brass rule made with an undulating face. |
b. Bot. and
Zool. Of marks, margins, etc.: Undulate, sinuate; having undulate or sinuate markings.
| 1832 J. Rennie Consp. Butterfl. & Moths 147 Between these streaks and the hinder margin a third streak wavy, brown, terminated by a paler colour. 1857 A. Gray 1st Less. Bot. (1866) 62 Leaves are said to be..Repand, undulate, or wavy, when the margin of the leaf forms a wavy line, bending slightly inwards and outwards in succession. 1859 Anne Pratt Brit. Grasses 74 Aira flexuosa (Wavy Hair-grass). Ibid. 92 Poa laxa (Wavy Meadow-grass). 1866 Treas. Bot. |
c. Her. = undee.
barry wavy, of the field: Divided into waving bands of generally horizontal direction.
| 1562 Legh Armory 134 b, He beareth party per crosse wauey Sable, and Argent. 1610 J. Guillim Heraldry ii. v. (1632) 69 He beareth, Argent, a Bend, Wauey, Sable... This is termed wauey, or waued, in respect it beareth a Representation of the Swelling Waue or Billowe of the Sea. 1722 A. Nisbet Syst. Her. I. vi. 22 Wavey or Waved, is said of a Line or Lines that are formed after the Waves of the Sea, as parted per Fess Wavey in the Arms of Drummond of Concraig, and the Lines which form the Barrs waved in the Arms of the Earl of Perth, which signifies, that the Bearer got his Arms for Services done at Sea. 1864 Boutell Her. Hist. & Pop. xxi. (ed. 3) 266 Per fesse arg. and barry wavy az. 1890 Conan Doyle White Company xviii, ‘How read you this..?’ ‘Argent and azure, a barry wavy of six.’ |
d. Of a dog (short for
wavy-coated): Having the coat in waves, not curly.
| 1884 Live Stock Jrnl. 28 Nov. 512/2 The Retrievers were good,..the curly Doctor having to give place to the wavy Harvester in Dogs. 1887 Field 1 Oct. Advt. p. xvi/2 Champion Zelstone (Wavy Retriever). |
7. Comb., as
wavy-coated,
wavy-edged,
wavy-haired,
wavy-handled,
wavy-leaved;
Wavy Navy colloq., the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, so nicknamed from the wavy braid worn by officers on their sleeves prior to 1956;
† wavy-ways adv., after the manner of waves.
| 1867 ‘Stonehenge’ Dogs Brit. Isl. 43 Windham..is a good example of the *wavy-coated dog. |
| 1865 Dickens Mut. Fr. i. ii, Veneering; forty, *wavy-haired, dark. |
| 1927 Peake & Fleure Peasants & Potters 72 The *wavy⁓handled pots. 1928 V. G. Childe Most Anc. East iv. 94 The wavy-handled jars..have been connected by Petrie, Frankfort, and Scharff with Palestine and Syria. |
| 1816–20 T. Green Univ. Herbal II. 828 Xyris Flexifolia; *Wavy-leaved Xyris. 1855 Anne Pratt Flower. Pl. V. 78 Salix undulata..is..sometimes called the Wavy-leaved Willow. |
| 1918 W. Owen Let. 21 Mar. (1967) 541 Her son, a Lieut. in the ‘*Wavy Navy’ was at home. 1944 A. Jacob Traveller's War iii. 40 The ship's doctor and the paymaster-lieutenant, both ‘Wavy Navy’ men..have been in the service only a few months and know next to nothing of the sea. 1960 D. Fearon Murder-on-Thames xiv. 115, I remember him when he was a Sub. He was Wavy Navy then. |
| 1671 Phil. Trans. VI. 2103 When the Load dips almost perpendicularly for many fathoms together, and may rise again in the next Hill (*wavie-ways). |
B. n. A wavy-coated retriever.
| 1884 Live Stock Jrnl. 5 Sept. 227/3 Retrievers: first and second both wavys. 1884 Ibid. 24 Dec. 612/2 Such a Kennel of wavies as is not equalled in any part of the world. |
Hence
ˈwavily adv.,
ˈwaviness.
| 1790 J. Wedgwood (title) An attempt to discover the causes of cords and waviness in Flint Glass and the most probable means of removing them. 1816 Keats Epist. Bro. George 59 The coy moon, when in the waviness Of whitest clouds she does her beauty dress. 1860 Geo. Eliot Mill on Fl. i. ix, Mr. Rappit, the hair-dresser, with his well-anointed coronal locks tending wavily upward. 1877 Waterhouse in Abney's Photogr. (1881) 190 A fine, even, glossy surface, perfectly free from the streaks and waviness so common when working with thick films. 1886 J. J. Quelch Coral-Reefs in Challenger Rep. XVI. iii. 136 The waviness and plications of the margins of the septa. |