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To play; to frolic; to wanton. [Fish], sporting with quick glance, Show to the sun their waved coats dropt with gold. Milton.

Water flying in small drops or particles, as by the force of wind, or the dashing of waves, or from a waterfall, and the like.

, or foam; frothy; foamy. The spumous and florid state of the blood. Arbuthnot. The spumy waves proclaim the watery war. Dryden.

purpose; constant; firm in resolution; not easily diverted from a purpose; not fickle or wavering; as, a man of stable character. And to her husband ever meek and stable. Chaucer.

To begin to doubt and waver in purposes; to become less confident or determined; to hesitate. He [Abraham] staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief. Rom. iv. 20.

Not fickle or wavering; constant; firm; resolute; unswerving; steady. "Steadfast eye." Shak. Abide steadfast unto him [thy neighbor] in the time of his trouble. Ecclus. xxii. 23. Whom resist steadfast in the faith. 1 Pet. v. 9.

Constant in feeling, purpose, or pursuit; not fickle, changeable, or wavering; not easily moved or persuaded to alter a purpose; resolute; as, a man steady in his principles, in his purpose, or in the pursuit of an object.

make progress against; to stop or check the flow of, as a current. "An argosy to stem the waves." Shak. [They] stem the flood with their erected breasts. Denham. Stemmed the wild torrent of a barbarous age. Pope.

To come in collision with; to strike against; as, a bullet struck him; the wave struck the boat amidships; the ship struck a reef.

to strive; to contend forcibly; as, to struggle to save one's life; to struggle with the waves; to struggle with adversity. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it [Gettysburg] far above our power to add or detract. Lincoln.

To cause to cease; to end. [Obs.] "The waves . . . their range surceast." Spenser. The nations, overawed, surceased the fight. Dryden.

n heavy surf. It is built with a pronounced sheer, and with a view to resist the shock of waves and of contact with the beach.

, abounding in, or resembling, surf; as, a surfy shore. Scarce had they cleared the surfy waves That foam around those frightful caves. Moore.

A large wave or billow; a great, rolling swell of water, produced generally by a high wind. He that doubteth is like the surge of the sea driven by the wind and tossed. James i. 6 (Rev. Ver.) He flies aloft, and, with impetuous roar, Pursues the foaming surges to the shore. Dryden.

To rise or be driven into waves or billows; to heave; as, in tempest, the ocean swells into waves.

To move to and fro, as a body suspended in the air; to wave; to vibrate; to oscillate. I tried if a pendulum would swing faster, or continue swinging longer, in case of exsuction of the air. Boyle.

To dangle; to wave hanging. [Obs.] Johnson.

To adjust or devise so as to emit or respond to electric oscillations of a certain wave length; to tune; specif., to put (two or more instruments or systems of wireless telegraphy) in syntony with each other. -- Syn`to*ni*za"tion (#), n.

State of being adjusted to a certain wave length; agreement or tuning between the time period of an apparatus emitting electric oscillations and that of a receiving apparatus, esp. in wireless telegraphy.

To rend or tear into rags; -- used chiefly in the past participle as an adjective. Where waved the tattered ensigns of Ragfair. Pope.