Library / English Dictionary

BILLOW

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

A large sea wave

Synonyms:

billow; surge

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Hypernyms ("billow" is a kind of...):

moving ridge; wave (one of a series of ridges that moves across the surface of a liquid (especially across a large body of water))

Derivation:

billow (rise and move, as in waves or billows)

billowy (characterized by great swelling waves or surges)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Become inflated

Example:

The sails ballooned

Synonyms:

balloon; billow; inflate

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Hypernyms (to "billow" is one way to...):

expand (become larger in size or volume or quantity)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "billow"):

reflate (become inflated again)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Something is ----ing PP

Sense 2

Meaning:

Rise and move, as in waves or billows

Example:

The army surged forward

Synonyms:

billow; heave; surge

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Hypernyms (to "billow" is one way to...):

blow up; inflate (fill with gas or air)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s

Derivation:

billow (a large sea wave)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Rise up as if in waves

Example:

smoke billowed up into the sky

Synonyms:

billow; wallow

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Hypernyms (to "billow" is one way to...):

soar; soar up; soar upwards; surge; zoom (rise rapidly)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "billow"):

cloud (billow up in the form of a cloud)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Something is ----ing PP

Sense 4

Meaning:

Move with great difficulty

Example:

The soldiers billowed across the muddy riverbed

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Hypernyms (to "billow" is one way to...):

go; locomote; move; travel (change location; move, travel, or proceed, also metaphorically)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s PP

Credits

 Context examples: 

The words in these introductory pages connected themselves with the succeeding vignettes, and gave significance to the rock standing up alone in a sea of billow and spray; to the broken boat stranded on a desolate coast; to the cold and ghastly moon glancing through bars of cloud at a wreck just sinking.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

The rain was still falling, but the darkness had parted in the west, and there was a pink and golden billow of foamy clouds above the sea.

(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)