Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Wave \Wave\, n. [From {Wave}, v.; not the same word as OE. wawe,
   waghe, a wave, which is akin to E. wag to move. [root]136.
   See {Wave}, v. i.]
   1. An advancing ridge or swell on the surface of a liquid, as
      of the sea, resulting from the oscillatory motion of the
      particles composing it when disturbed by any force their
      position of rest; an undulation.

            The wave behind impels the wave before. --Pope.

   2. (Physics) A vibration propagated from particle to particle
      through a body or elastic medium, as in the transmission
      of sound; an assemblage of vibrating molecules in all
      phases of a vibration, with no phase repeated; a wave of
      vibration; an undulation. See {Undulation}.

   3. Water; a body of water. [Poetic] ``Deep drank Lord Marmion
      of the wave.'' --Sir W. Scott.

            Build a ship to save thee from the flood, I 'll
            furnish thee with fresh wave, bread, and wine.
                                                  --Chapman.

   4. Unevenness; inequality of surface. --Sir I. Newton.

   5. A waving or undulating motion; a signal made with the
      hand, a flag, etc.

   6. The undulating line or streak of luster on cloth watered,
      or calendered, or on damask steel.

   7. Fig.: A swelling or excitement of thought, feeling, or
      energy; a tide; as, waves of enthusiasm.

   {Wave front} (Physics), the surface of initial displacement
      of the particles in a medium, as a wave of vibration
      advances.

   {Wave length} (Physics), the space, reckoned in the direction
      of propagation, occupied by a complete wave or undulation,
      as of light, sound, etc.; the distance from a point or
      phase in a wave to the nearest point at which the same
      phase occurs.

   {Wave line} (Shipbuilding), a line of a vessel's hull, shaped
      in accordance with the wave-line system.

   {Wave-line system}, {Wave-line theory} (Shipbuilding), a
      system or theory of designing the lines of a vessel, which
      takes into consideration the length and shape of a wave
      which travels at a certain speed.

   {Wave loaf}, a loaf for a wave offering. --Lev. viii. 27.

   {Wave moth} (Zo["o]l.), any one of numerous species of small
      geometrid moths belonging to {Acidalia} and allied genera;
      -- so called from the wavelike color markings on the
      wings.

   {Wave offering}, an offering made in the Jewish services by
      waving the object, as a loaf of bread, toward the four
      cardinal points. --Num. xviii. 11.

   {Wave of vibration} (Physics), a wave which consists in, or
      is occasioned by, the production and transmission of a
      vibratory state from particle to particle through a body.
      

   {Wave surface}.
      (a) (Physics) A surface of simultaneous and equal
          displacement of the particles composing a wave of
          vibration.
      (b) (Geom.) A mathematical surface of the fourth order
          which, upon certain hypotheses, is the locus of a wave
          surface of light in the interior of crystals. It is
          used in explaining the phenomena of double refraction.
          See under {Refraction}.

   {Wave theory}. (Physics) See {Undulatory theory}, under
      {Undulatory}.

Source : WordNet®

wave front
     n 1: all the points just reached by a wave as it propagates
     2: (physics) an imaginary surface joining all points in space
        that are reached at the same instant by a wave propagating
        through a medium [syn: {wavefront}]