billow

English

Etymology

From Middle English *bilowe, *bilewe, *bilwe, *bilȝe, borrowed from Old Norse bylgja, from Proto-Germanic *bulgijō. Cognates include Danish bølge, Norwegian Bokmål bølge, Norwegian Nynorsk bylgje, Middle High German bulga and Low German bulge.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈbɪləʊ/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈbɪloʊ/

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  Rhymes: -ɪləʊ

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:

     The snow fell hissing in the brine, / And the billows frothed like yeast.

   • 1851, Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chapter 9:

     But at that moment he is sprung upon by a panther billow leaping over the bulwarks. Wave after wave thus leaps into the ship […]

   • 1864, Frank Moore, Songs of the Soldiers, page 238:

     The banners outflame the blazing morn, / O'er billows of bayonet, sword, and spear.

   • 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.

     Where billow meets billow, there soft be thy pillow; / Ah, weary wee flipperling, curl at thy ease!

   • 1922, Clark Ashton Smith, The Caravan:

     Have the swirling sands engulfed them, on a noon of storm when the desert rose like the sea, and rolled its tawny billows on the walled gardens of the green and fragrant lands?

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

billow (third-person singular simple present billows, present participle billowing, simple past and past participle billowed)

1. To surge or roll in billows.
   • 1920, Peter B. Kyne, chapter 2, in The Understanding Heart:

     During the preceding afternoon a heavy North Pacific fog had blown in … Scudding eastward from the ocean, it had crept up and over the redwood-studded crests of the Coast Range mountains, […] , billowing steadily eastward, it had rolled up the western slopes of the Siskiyou Range, […]

   • 1942, Emily Carr, “Chain Gang”, in The Book of Small:

     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.

   • 2015, Alison Matthews David, Fashion Victims: The Damages of Dress Past and Present, →ISBN, page 59:

     The black clouds of mercury vapour constantly billowing from the hatter's workshops and out into the streets must have been a horrifying sight.

2. To swell out or bulge.
   • 1936 June 30, Margaret Mitchell, chapter I, in Gone with the Wind, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, →OCLC; republished New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, 1944, →OCLC:

     Her new green flowered-muslin dress spread its twelve yards of billowing material over her hoops and exactly matched the flat-heeled green morocco slippers her father had recently brought her from Atlanta.

   • 1983, Peter De Vries, chapter 9, in Slouching Towards Kalamazoo, page 125:

     She had changed her auburn hair. Instead of wearing it in a billowing puff over her brow, she had gathered it into a ponytail, secured with a length of yellow yarn.

Translations

References