billow

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“
As the billow is at its height, before it combs over, the fisherman sees the sunlight gleaming through it--an ecstasy of perfect lucid green, with the glimmer of yellow sand behind.

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Definitions (17)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (5)

  1. noun A large wave or swell of water.
  2. noun A great swell, surge, or undulating mass, as of smoke or sound.
  3. intransitive verb To surge or roll in billows.
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Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (5)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (2)

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Examples (50)

  • The tattered sails billow, and the air grows sweeter. —  The New Yorker
  • Already the distant roar of the billow was heard, proving that it had begun to break The wind comes with it," said Van der Kemp Stand by!" —  Blown to Bits The Lonely Man of Rakata, the Malay Archipelago
  • Now she rose to the top of a foaming billow, and now she was lost to sight. —  The History of Little Peter, the Ship Boy
  • As the billow is at its height, before it combs over, the fisherman sees the sunlight gleaming through it--an ecstasy of perfect lucid green, with the glimmer of yellow sand behind. —  Pipefuls
  • Immediately they reached the sea, blowing, and the billow was raised up beneath their sonorous blast: but they reached the very fertile Troad, and fell upon the pile, and mightily resounded the fiercely-burning fire. —  The Iliad of Homer (1873)
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Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. From Old Norse bylgja, a wave; see bhelgh- in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. Early modern English also bellow; prob. from Icelandic bylgja (through an unrecorded Middle English *bylge) = Swedish bölja = Danish bölge, a billow, = Old Dutch bolghe, bulghe = Low German bulge = Old High German *bulga, Middle High German G. bulge, a billow, prob. related to Old High German bulgā, Middle High German G. bulge, a bag; ult. from Anglo-Saxon (etc.) belgan, swell, swell up, whence also bellows, belly, etc. Cf. bulge.
  2. from billow, n.
 

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/ˈbɪloʊ/
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