Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The wave set up at the bows of a vessel under way. The crest of the wave is inclined diagonally outward and aft on each side from the bow.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • He was swimming at the surface, his great square head resting on the shallow bow-wave that his progress pushed just ahead of him.

    Country diary: Claxton, Norfolk 2010

  • The run-up to this speech has been characterised by some epic spinning from shadowy American and Israeli ‘sources’ which has been creating a powerful bow-wave of feverish speculation and alarm.

    On Thursday, the Legg report will be published along with... 2009

  • The run-up to this speech has been characterised by some epic spinning from shadowy American and Israeli ‘sources’ which has been creating a powerful bow-wave of feverish speculation and alarm.

    An Ode to Joy this is not 2009

  • The run-up to this speech has been characterised by some epic spinning from shadowy American and Israeli ‘sources’ which has been creating a powerful bow-wave of feverish speculation and alarm.

    On Thursday, the Legg report will be published along with... 2009

  • The slug created a downward bow-wave that caused edema and pressure on the optic chiasm.

    Duma Key King, Stephen, 1947- 2008

  • I saw that their legs did not move, as they did in crossing land, but remained fixed and triangulated, and that each foot raised a bow-wave which, supposing they were of the usual size, must be twenty feet high.

    The White Mountains John Christopher 2003

  • I saw that their legs did not move, as they did in crossing land, but remained fixed and triangulated, and that each foot raised a bow-wave which, supposing they were of the usual size, must be twenty feet high.

    The White Mountains John Christopher 2003

  • And second, we've been living off of seed corn, going back to about the beginning of the 1980s, in terms of what, then, was a bow-wave of procurement and modernization of equipment.

    Press Briefing By Bob Bell ITY National Archives 1999

  • Only the utter placidity of the water allowed him to discern the effect, and that just for an instant, before the ripples were cleanly split by the gentle bow-wave of the boat.

    Emperor of Ansalon Niles, Douglas 1993

  • Their car banked around a corner and screamed past them, kicking up a brief bow-wave of hot, dry, exhaust-tinged wind, motor howling like a Bane-Sidhe.

    Omnibus Lackey, Mercedes 1993

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