Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A wave of symmetrical form which has outrun the wind which produced it.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • In a highly wrought, almost hallucinatory flashback, Peter remembers an adolescent holiday at a lakeside house and a visionary experience he had there, "a sea-swell of feeling, utterly unexpected, a sensation that starts in his bowels and fluoresces through his body, dizzying, giddying."

    Alan Hollinghurst On Michael Cunningham: The New York Review Of Books The Huffington Post News Team 2010

  • In a highly wrought, almost hallucinatory flashback, Peter remembers an adolescent holiday at a lakeside house and a visionary experience he had there, "a sea-swell of feeling, utterly unexpected, a sensation that starts in his bowels and fluoresces through his body, dizzying, giddying."

    Alan Hollinghurst On Michael Cunningham Sammy Perlmutter 2010

  • In a highly wrought, almost hallucinatory flashback, Peter remembers an adolescent holiday at a lakeside house and a visionary experience he had there, "a sea-swell of feeling, utterly unexpected, a sensation that starts in his bowels and fluoresces through his body, dizzying, giddying."

    Alan Hollinghurst On Michael Cunningham: The New York Review Of Books The Huffington Post News Team 2010

  • The long sea-swell could be seen breaking over the rocks in the bay, forming a foamy fringe.

    The Mysterious Island 2005

  • On the contrary, all the part of the shore between Falls River and Reptile End was a mass of wood, magnificent trees, some straight, others bent, so that the long sea-swell bathed their roots.

    The Mysterious Island 2005

  • On the contrary, all the part of the shore between Falls River and Reptile End was a mass of wood, magnificent trees, some straight, others bent, so that the long sea-swell bathed their roots.

    The Mysterious Island 2005

  • The long sea-swell could be seen breaking over the rocks in the bay, forming a foamy fringe.

    The Mysterious Island 2005

  • The impact of seeing her hit me like a tidal sea-swell, stopping the very breath in my lungs.

    Kushiel's Avatar Carey, Jacqueline, 1964- 2003

  • It felt strangely familiar to have the sensation of sea-swell beneath my feet, and I soon recovered the trick of swaying to balance myself with it.

    Kushiel's Avatar Carey, Jacqueline, 1964- 2003

  • The two shores fell away; our prows pitched in a sea-swell.

    The Bull From The Sea Renault, Mary 1962

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