move side to side vs wave

move side to side

wave

verb
  • To generate a wave. 

  • To swing and miss at a pitch. 

  • To call attention to, or give a direction or command to, by a waving motion, as of the hand; to signify by waving; to beckon; to signal; to indicate. 

  • To move one’s hand back and forth (generally above the shoulders) in greeting or departure. 

  • To have an undulating or wavy form. 

  • To raise into inequalities of surface; to give an undulating form or surface to. 

  • To produce waves to the hair. 

  • To signal (someone or something) with a waving movement. 

  • To move back and forth repeatedly and somewhat loosely. 

  • To move like a wave, or by floating; to waft. 

  • To cause to move back and forth repeatedly. 

noun
  • A loose back-and-forth movement, as of the hands. 

  • One of the successive swarms of enemies sent to attack the player in certain games. 

  • A moving disturbance in the level of a body of liquid; an undulation. 

  • Any of a number of species of moths in the geometrid subfamily Sterrhinae, which have wavy markings on the wings. 

  • A shape that alternatingly curves in opposite directions. 

  • The ocean. 

  • A moving disturbance in the energy level of a field. 

  • A sudden, but temporary, uptick in something. 

  • A group activity in a crowd imitating a wave going through water, where people in successive parts of the crowd stand and stretch upward, then sit. 

How often have the words move side to side and wave occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )