wave vs windmill

wave

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

  • 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. 

  • 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. 

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. 

windmill

noun
  • Any of various large papilionid butterflies of the genus Byasa, the wings of which resemble the vanes of a windmill. 

  • A pitch where the pitcher swings his arm in a circular motion before throwing the ball. 

  • A child's toy consisting of vanes mounted on a stick that rotate when blown by a person or by the wind. 

  • Any of various muscle exercises in which a large deal of the body makes a great circle, typically one where a kettlebell is raised overhead and the torso is rotated to the other side with the hand reaching its foot (hitting the core, glutes, hamstrings, trapezius, rhomboids, deltoids and rotator cuffs) but sometimes even a windshield wiper. 

  • An imaginary enemy, but presented as real. 

  • A guitar move where the strumming hand mimics a turning windmill. 

  • A machine which translates linear motion of wind to rotational motion by means of adjustable vanes called sails. 

  • The structure containing such machinery. 

  • The false shower. 

  • A breakdancing move in which the dancer rolls his/her torso continuously in a circular path on the floor, across the upper chest, shoulders and back, while twirling the legs in a V shape in the air. 

  • A dunk where the dunker swings his arm in a circular motion before throwing the ball through the hoop. 

verb
  • To rotate with a sweeping motion. 

  • Of a rotating part of a machine, to (become disengaged and) rotate freely. 

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