1. [n]  a movement like that of an ocean wave; "a wave of settlers"; "troops advancing in waves"
2. [n]  a hairdo that creates undulations in the hair
3. [n]  the act of signaling by a movement of the hand
4. [n]  (physics) a progressive disturbance propagated without displacement of the medium itself
5. [n]  one of a series of ridges that moves across the surface of a liquid (especially across a large body of water)
6. [n]  something that rises rapidly and dies away; "a wave of emotion swept over him"; "there was a sudden wave of buying before the market closed"
7. [n]  an undulating curve
8. [v]  set waves in; of hair
9. [v]  signal with the hands or nod; "She waved to her friends"; "He waved his hand hospitably"
10. [v]  move or swing back and forth; "She waved her gun."
11. [v]  twist or roll into coils or ringlets; "curl my hair, please"
12. [v]  move in a wavy pattern, as of curtains

1. \Wave\, n.
   Something resembling or likened to a water wave, as in rising
   unusually high, in being of unusual extent, or in progressive
   motion; a swelling or excitement, as of feeling or energy; a
   tide; flood; period of intensity, usual activity, or the
   like; as, a wave of enthusiasm.
   

2. \Wave\ (w[=a]v), v. t.
   See {Waive}. --Sir H. Wotton. Burke.
   

3. \Wave\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. {Waved} (w[=a]vd); p. pr. & vb.
   n. {Waving}.] [OE. waven, AS. wafian to waver, to hesitate,
   to wonder; akin to w[ae]fre wavering, restless, MHG. wabern
   to be in motion, Icel. vafra to hover about; cf. Icel.
   v[=a]fa to vibrate. Cf. {Waft}, {Waver}.]
   1. To play loosely; to move like a wave, one way and the
      other; to float; to flutter; to undulate.
            His purple robes waved careless to the winds.
                                                  --Trumbull.
            Where the flags of three nations has successively
            waved.                                --Hawthorne.
   2. To be moved to and fro as a signal. --B. Jonson.
   3. To fluctuate; to waver; to be in an unsettled state; to
      vacillate. [Obs.]
            He waved indifferently 'twixt doing them neither
            good nor harm.                        --Shak.
   

4. \Wave\, v. t.
   1. To move one way and the other; to brandish. ``[[AE]neas]
      waved his fatal sword.'' --Dryden.
   2. To raise into inequalities of surface; to give an
      undulating form a surface to.
            Horns whelked and waved like the enridged sea.
                                                  --Shak.
   3. To move like a wave, or by floating; to waft. [Obs.] --Sir
      T. Browne.
   4. 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.
            Look, with what courteous action It waves you to a
            more removed ground.                  --Shak.
            She spoke, and bowing waved Dismissal. --Tennyson.
   

5. \Wave\, n. [From {Wave}, v.; not the same word as OE. wawe,
   waghe, a wave, which is akin to E. wag to move. [root]136.
   See {Wave}, v. i.]
   1. An advancing ridge or swell on the surface of a liquid, as
      of the sea, resulting from the oscillatory motion of the
      particles composing it when disturbed by any force their
      position of rest; an undulation.
            The wave behind impels the wave before. --Pope.
   2. (Physics) A vibration propagated from particle to particle
      through a body or elastic medium, as in the transmission
      of sound; an assemblage of vibrating molecules in all
      phases of a vibration, with no phase repeated; a wave of
      vibration; an undulation. See {Undulation}.
   3. Water; a body of water. [Poetic] ``Deep drank Lord Marmion
      of the wave.'' --Sir W. Scott.
            Build a ship to save thee from the flood, I 'll
            furnish thee with fresh wave, bread, and wine.
                                                  --Chapman.
   4. Unevenness; inequality of surface. --Sir I. Newton.
   5. A waving or undulating motion; a signal made with the
      hand, a flag, etc.
   6. The undulating line or streak of luster on cloth watered,
      or calendered, or on damask steel.
   7. Fig.: A swelling or excitement of thought, feeling, or
      energy; a tide; as, waves of enthusiasm.
   {Wave front} (Physics), the surface of initial displacement
      of the particles in a medium, as a wave of vibration
      advances.
   {Wave length} (Physics), the space, reckoned in the direction
      of propagation, occupied by a complete wave or undulation,
      as of light, sound, etc.; the distance from a point or
      phase in a wave to the nearest point at which the same
      phase occurs.
   {Wave line} (Shipbuilding), a line of a vessel's hull, shaped
      in accordance with the wave-line system.
   {Wave-line system}, {Wave-line theory} (Shipbuilding), a
      system or theory of designing the lines of a vessel, which
      takes into consideration the length and shape of a wave
      which travels at a certain speed.
   {Wave loaf}, a loaf for a wave offering. --Lev. viii. 27.
   {Wave moth} (Zo["o]l.), any one of numerous species of small
      geometrid moths belonging to {Acidalia} and allied genera;
      -- so called from the wavelike color markings on the
      wings.
   {Wave offering}, an offering made in the Jewish services by
      waving the object, as a loaf of bread, toward the four
      cardinal points. --Num. xviii. 11.
   {Wave of vibration} (Physics), a wave which consists in, or
      is occasioned by, the production and transmission of a
      vibratory state from particle to particle through a body.
   {Wave surface}.
      (a) (Physics) A surface of simultaneous and equal
          displacement of the particles composing a wave of
          vibration.
      (b) (Geom.) A mathematical surface of the fourth order
          which, upon certain hypotheses, is the locus of a wave
          surface of light in the interior of crystals. It is
          used in explaining the phenomena of double refraction.
          See under {Refraction}.
   {Wave theory}. (Physics) See {Undulatory theory}, under
      {Undulatory}.
   

6. \Wave\, n. [See {Woe}.]
   Woe. [Obs.]
   

A robotics language.

["WAVE: A Model-Based Language for Manipulator Control", R.P. Paul, Ind Robot 4(1):10-17, 1979].

1. An oscillatory movement of water on or near the surface of standing water in which a succession of crests and troughs advance while particles of water follow cyclic paths without advancing.
2. Motion of water in a flowing stream so as to develop the superficial appearance of a wave.