signs vs wave

signs

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 signs and wave occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )