Emily Dickinson Lexicon

WAVE, n. [Sax. weg, wæg, a wave, a way; both the same word, and both coinciding with the root of wag, wagon, vacillate, weigh, &c. The sense is, a going, a moving, appropriately a moving one way and the other; G. woge; Sw. våg; Ir. buaice.]

1. A moving swell or volume of water; usually, a swell raised and driven by wind. A pebble thrown into still water produces waves, which form concentric circles, receding from the point where the pebble fell. But waves are generally raised and driven by wind, and the word comprehends any moving swell on the surface of water, from the smallest ripple to the billows of a tempest. The wave behind impels the wave before. – Pope.
2. Unevenness; inequality of surface. – Newton.
3. The line or streak of luster on cloth watered and calendered.