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A wave, or two or three successive waves, of great height and violence, at flood tide moving up an estuary or river; -- commonly called the bore. See Bore.

sion of the earth, due to subterranean causes, often accompanied by a rumbling noise. The wave of shock sometimes traverses half a hemisphere, destroying cities and many thousand lives; -- called also earthdin, earthquave, and earthshock. Earthquake alarm, a bell signal constructed to operate on the theory that a few s…

The reflux or flowing back of the tide; the return of the tidal wave toward the sea; -- opposed to flood; as, the boats will go out on the ebb. Thou shoreless flood which in thy ebb and flow Claspest the limits of morality! Shelley.

Pouring out; pouring forth freely. "Washed with the effusive wave." Pope. Effusive rocks (Geol.), volcanic rocks, in distinction from so-called intrusive, or plutonic, rocks. -- Ef*fu"sive*ly, adv. -- Ef*fu"sive*ness, n.

To make gross, thick, or large; to thicken; to increase in bulk or quantity. [Obs.] Waves . . . engrossed with mud. Spenser. Not sleeping, to engross his idle body. Shak.

false claim; a false conclusion; a false construction in grammar. Whose false foundation waves have swept away. Spenser.

To hold steadily; to direct unwaveringly; to fasten, as the eye on an object, the attention on a speaker. Sat fixed in thought the mighty Stagirite. Pope. One eye on death, and one full fix'd on heaven. Young.

nality, party, etc., or to give or ask information; -- commonly attached to a staff to be waved by the wind; a standard; a banner; an ensign; the colors; as, the national flag; a military or a naval flag.

throw up large bodies of water from the surface; to splash. [Obs.] He rudely flashed the waves about. Spenser. Flashed glass. See Flashing, n., 3.

s; not invincibly rigid or obstinate; tractable; manageable; ductile; easy and compliant; wavering. Phocion was a man of great severity, and no ways flexible to the will of the people. Bacon. Women are soft, mild, pitiful, and flexible. Shak.

Wavering; not steady; flickering. Bacon.

To waver unsteadily, like a flame in a current of air, or when about to expire; as, the flickering light. The shadows flicker to fro. Tennyson.

The sea; a wave. See Flote, n. Float board, one of the boards fixed radially to the rim of an undershot water wheel or of a steamer's paddle wheel; -- a vane. -- Float case (Naut.), a caisson used for lifting a ship. -- Float copper or gold (Mining), fine particles of metallic copper or of gold suspended in water, an…

A wave. [Obs.] "The Mediterranean flote." Shak.

Barrow. With his broad fins and forky tail he laves The rising sirge, and flounces in the waves. Addison.

Tending to produce waves. Blount.

Sounding like waves.

Moving like a wave; wavering; (Med.)

To move as a wave; to roll hither and thither; to wave; to float backward and forward, as on waves; as, a fluctuating field of air. Blackmore.

A motion like that of waves; a moving in this and that direction; as, the fluctuations of the sea.