surge

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. v. To rise and move in a billowing or swelling manner.
2. v. To roll or be tossed about on waves, as a boat.
3. v. To move like advancing waves: The fans surged forward to see the movie star.
4. v. To increase suddenly: As favorable reviews came out, interest in the software surged.
5. v. To improve one's performance suddenly, especially in bettering one's standing in a competition.
6. v. Nautical To slip around a windlass. Used of a rope.
7. v. Nautical To loosen or slacken (a cable) gradually.
8. n. A heavy billowing or swelling motion like that of great waves.
9. n. Wave motion with low height and a shorter period than a swell.
10. n. A coastal rise in water level caused by wind.
11. n. The forward and backward motion of a ship subjected to wave action.
12. n. A sudden onrush: a surge of joy.
13. n. A period of intense effort that improves a competitor's standing, as in a race.
14. n. A sudden, transient increase or oscillation in electric current or voltage.
15. n. An instability in the power output of an engine.
16. n. Astronomy A brief, violent disturbance occurring during the eruption of a solar flare.
17. n. Nautical The part of a windlass into which the cable surges.
18. n. Nautical A temporary release or slackening of a cable.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. To rise and fall, as a ship on the waves; especially, to ride near the shore; ride at anchor.
2. To rise high and roll, as waves: literally or figuratively.
3. Nautical: To slip back: as, the cable surges.
4. To let go a piece of rope suddenly; slack a rope up suddenly when it renders round a pin, a winch, windlass, or capstan.
5. n. A spring; a fountain; a source of water.
6. n. A large wave or billow; a great rolling swell of water; also, such waves or swells collectively: literally or figuratively.
7. n. The act of surging, or of heaving in an undulatory manner.
8. n. In ship-building, the tapered part in front of the whelps, between the chocks of a capstan, on which a rope may surge.
9. n. Any change of barometric level which is not due to the passage of an area of low pressure or to diurnal variation. Synonyms See wave.
10. In electricity, to oscillate violently: said of oscillatory rushes of current.
11. To cause to rise and swell forth with a billowy motion.
12. n. In electricity, a sudden rush of current; specifically, the violent oscillations which may occur in alternating-current circuits when the conditions for resonance are fulfilled, or which may be set up in conductors by the inductive action of lightning.

Wiktionary

1. n. A sudden rush, flood or increase which is transient.
2. n. The maximum amplitude of a vehicles' forward/backward oscillation
3. n. electricity A sudden electrical spike or increase of voltage and current.
4. n. nautical The swell or heave of the sea. (FM 55-501).
5. v. intransitive To rush, flood, or increase suddenly.
6. v. To accelerate forwards, particularly suddenly.
7. v. transitive, nautical To slack off a line.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. obsolete A spring; a fountain.
2. n. A large wave or billow; a great, rolling swell of water, produced generally by a high wind.
3. n. The motion of, or produced by, a great wave.
4. n. The tapered part of a windlass barrel or a capstan, upon which the cable surges, or slips.
5. v. To swell; to rise hifg and roll.
6. v. (Naut.) To slip along a windlass.
7. v. (Naut.) To let go or slacken suddenly, as a rope; ; also, to slacken the rope about (a capstan).

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a sudden forceful flow
2. n. a sudden or abrupt strong increase
3. n. a large sea wave
4. v. rise rapidly
5. v. rise and move, as in waves or billows
6. v. see one's performance improve
7. v. rise or heave upward under the influence of a natural force such as a wave
8. v. rise or move forward