Billow

• POS: Noun, Verb (usu participle)
• HYPHEN: bil=low

CIDE DICTIONARY

Billow, n. [Cf. Icel. bylgja billow, Dan. bölge, Sw. bölja; akin to MHG. bulge billow, bag, and to E. bulge. See Bulge.].

•  A great wave or surge of the sea or other water, caused usually by violent wind.  [1913 Webster]

  "Whom the winds waft where'er the billows roll."  [1913 Webster]
•  A great wave or flood of anything.  Milton.  [1913 Webster]

Billow, v. i. 

 To surge; to rise and roll in waves or surges; to undulate.  Prior.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

Billow, n. & v.
--n.
1 a wave.
2 a soft upward-curving flow.
3 any large soft mass.
--v.intr. move or build up in billows.

Derivative

billowy adj.

Etymology

ON bylgja f. Gmc

THESAURUS

Billow

bag, balloon, be poised, belly, belly out, bilge, bore, bouge, break, breakers, bug, bulge, chop, choppiness, chopping sea, comb, comber, crash, dash, dilate, dirty water, distend, eagre, ebb and flow, goggle, gravity wave, ground swell, heave, heavy sea, heavy swell, lift, lop, peak, pooch, pop, popple, pouch, pout, riffle, ripple, rise, rise and fall, roll, roller, rough water, round out, scend, sea, send, smash, surf, surge, swell, swell out, tidal bore, tidal wave, tide wave, toss, trough, tsunami, undulate, undulation, water wave, wave, wavelet, white horses, whitecaps

ROGET THESAURUS

Billow

River

N river, running water, jet, spirt, spurt, squirt, spout, spray, splash, rush, gush, jet d'eau, sluice, water spout, water fall, cascade, force, foss, lin, linn, ghyll, Niagara, cataract, rapids, white water, catadupe, cataclysm, debacle, inundation, deluge, chute, washout, rain, rainfall, serein, shower, scud, downpour, driving rain, drenching rain, cloudburst, hyetology, hyetography, predominance of Aquarius, reign of St. Swithin, mizzle, drizzle, stillicidum, plash, dropping, falling weather, northeaster, hurricane, typhoon, stream, course, flux, flow, profluence, effluence, defluxion, flowing, current, tide, race, coulee, spring, artesian well, fount, fountain, rill, rivulet, gill, gullet, rillet, streamlet, brooklet, branch, runnel, sike, burn, beck, creek, brook, bayou, stream, river, reach, tributary, geyser, spout, waterspout, body of water, torrent, rapids, flush, flood, swash, spring tide, high tide, full tide, bore, tidal bore, eagre, hygre, fresh, freshet, indraught, reflux, undercurrent, eddy, vortex, gurge, whirlpool, Maelstrom, regurgitation, overflow, confluence, corrivation, wave, billow, surge, swell, ripple, anerythmon gelasma, beach comber, riffle, rollers, ground swell, surf, breakers, white horses, whitecaps, rough sea, heavy sea, high seas, cross sea, long sea, short sea, chopping sea, hydrodynamics, hydraulics, hydraulicostatics, rain gauge, flowmeter, pegology, irrigation, pump, watering pot, watering cart, hydrant, syringe, garden hose, lawn spray, bhisti, mussuk, fluent, diffluent, profluent, affluent, tidal, flowing, meandering, meandry, meandrous, fluvial, fluviatile, streamy, showery, rainy, pluvial, stillicidous, stillatitious, for men may come and men may go but I go on foreve, that old man river, he just keeps rolling along.