Billow

Pronunciation

• RP IPA: /ˈbɪləʊ/
• US IPA: /ˈbɪloÊŠ/Rhymes: -ɪləʊ

Origin

From Old Norse bylgja

Etymology in

, from Proto-Germanic *bulgijǭ. Cognates include Danish bølge, Middle High German bulga and Low German bulge.

Full definition of billow

Noun

1. A large wave, swell, surge, or undulating mass of something, such as water, smoke, fabric or sound
• Cowperwhom the winds waft where'er the billows roll
• 18??, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, :And the brooklet has found the billow
  Though they flowed so far apart.
• 1922, Clark Ashton Smith, :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?

Verb

1. To surge or roll in billows
• 1920, Peter B. Kyne, The Understanding Heart, Chapter II: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, ...
2. To swell out or bulge