billowy

English

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *bʰelǵʰ-der.

Proto-Germanic *belganą

Proto-Germanic *bulgijō

Old Norse bylgjabor.

Middle English *bilwe

English billow

Proto-Indo-European *-kos

Proto-Germanic *-gaz

Proto-West Germanic *-g

Old English -iġ

Middle English -y

English -y

English billowy

From billow + -y.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈbɪ.ləʊ.(w)i/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪləʊ(w)i

Adjective

billowy (comparative billowier, superlative billowiest)

1. Swelling or swollen into large waves; full of billows or surges; resembling billows.
   • 1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part I, page 200:

     He was shabby and careless, with inkstains on the sleeves of his jacket, and his cravat was large and billowy, under a chin shaped like the toe of an old boot.

   • 1919, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, chapter LVIII, in The Moon and Sixpence, [New York, N.Y.]: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers […], →OCLC:

     […] Tiare clasped me to her vast bosom, so that I seemed to sink into a billowy sea, and pressed her red lips to mine.

   • 2006, Nicholas Antongiavanni [pseudonym; Michael Anton], The Suit: A Machiavellian Approach to Men's Style, New York: HarperCollins Publishers, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 28:

     This allows the muscular man to order a suit whose jacket fits him in the chest and shoulders and is not billowy through the waist and hips; and whose trousers fit him in the waist but whose legs are not reminiscent of harem pants.

Derived terms

• billowiness

Translations

full of billows or surges

• Bulgarian: хълмист (hălmist)
• Czech: vlnící se, vzdouvající se
• German: wellig (de), wogend (de)
• Māori: tāpokopoko
• Spanish: onduloso
• Turkish: dalga dalga (tr), dalgalı (tr)

References

• “billowy”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.