billow
Pronunciation
  • (RP) IPA: /ˈbɪləʊ/
  • (America) IPA: /ˈbɪloʊ/
Noun

billow (plural billows)

  1. A large wave, swell, surge, or undulating mass of something, such as water, smoke, fabric or sound
    • 1782, William Cowper, "Expostulation", in Poems by William Cowper, of the Inner Temple, Esq..
      […] Whom the winds waft where'er the billows roll, / From the world's girdle to the frozen pole;
    • 1842, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, "The Wreck of the Hesperus", in Ballads and Other Poems.
      quote en
    • 1873, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, "The Brook and the Wave" in Birds of Passage:
      And the brooklet has found the billow / Though they flowed so far apart.
    • 1893 August, Rudyard Kipling, "Seal Lullaby", in "The White Seal", National Review (London).
      quote en
Translations Verb

billow (billows, present participle billowing; past and past participle billowed)

  1. To surge or roll in billows.
    • 1942, Emily Carr, The Book of Small, “Chain Gang,”
      The nuns' veils billowed and flapped behind the snaky line of girls as if the sisters were shooing the serpent from the Garden of Eden.
  2. To swell out or bulge.
Translations Translations


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