waving

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle of wave.

   He stood at the gate, waving as the car drove off.

   The branches were waving wildly in the gusty wind.

   Note

   One spelling, two jobs: the -ing form of wave carries the progressive (she was waving) and the gerund (waving goodbye is hard). It inherits every use of the verb, intransitive and transitive alike: branches waving in the wind, waving a driver through, even waving hair into soft curls. Once it takes an article or a plural, wavings, it has crossed over into the noun for the motion.

2. 2
   noununcountable

   The repeated movement of the arms or hands used as a signal or greeting.

   The frantic waving of the stranded hikers was finally spotted by the rescue helicopter.

   A polite waving of the hand told the driver to go ahead through the intersection.

   Similargesturing, signaling, gesticulation

3. 3
   noununcountable

   The swaying, back-and-forth motion of an object that moves like a wave.

   The constant waving of the wheat field made it look like a rippling green sea.

   The flag's waving grew wilder as the storm rolled in over the harbor.

   Similarswaying, fluttering, rippling, undulation, flapping

   Oppositestillness

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