undulate - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

First attested in 1664; borrowed from New Latin undulātus, the perfect passive participle of undulō (see -ate (verb-forming suffix)), from an unattested *undula (“small wave”), diminutive of Latin unda (“wave”).

undulate (third-person singular simple present undulates, present participle undulating, simple past and past participle undulated)

  1. (transitive) To cause to move in a wavelike motion.
    • 1669, William Holder, Elements of Speech: An Essay of Inquiry into the Natural Production of Letters: […], London: […] T. N[ewcomb] for J[ohn] Martyn printer to the R[oyal] Society, […], →OCLC:
      Breath vocalized, i.e., vibrated and undulated.
  2. (transitive) To cause to resemble a wave.
  3. (intransitive) To move in wavelike motions.
    His tongue undulated.
    • 1865, Walt Whitman, “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d”, in Sequel to Drum-Taps: When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d and other poems:
      Come lovely and soothing death, / Undulate round the world, serenely arriving, arriving, / In the day, in the night, to all, to each, / Sooner or later delicate death.
  4. (intransitive) To appear wavelike.

transitive: cause to move in a wave

intransitive: move in wavelike motions

Borrowed from Late Latin undulātus (“undulated”), see -ate (adjective-forming suffix).

Flowers with undulate petal margins

undulate (comparative more undulate, superlative most undulate)

  1. Wavy in appearance or form.
  2. Changing the pitch and volume of one's voice.
  3. (botany, of a margin) sinuous, winding up and down.

wavy in appearance or form

undulāte

  1. vocative masculine singular of undulātus