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billowy

billowy

4 6.4
Having large soft waves like cloth or clouds in the wind
  • adjective
  • /ˈbɪloʊi/
translation icon : ondulante
  • But then, a small, billowy white cloud with a dark center materialized overhead.
  • billowy clouds
  • billowy pants
  • billowy sleeves

You know, they're in the desert and there's like the billowy flowing clothes and they're just having this dialogue that this is not interesting.

Examples

  • In the east, above the ridge, lightning flashed, outlining billowy dark clouds.

    Fiction book (1991)
  • The large, billowy form of my mother's teatime friend, Sarita Aunty, emerges from the stall.

    Fiction book (1999)
  • You feel like a billowy cloud.

  • Around them, the fog was changing, pulling back in billowy sworls.

    Fiction book (1994)
  • Sunsets, the moon on crystal clear nights, huge billowy clouds, mountains and streams, autumn leaves, birds at the feeders.

    Blog text (19)
  • Morgan looked through his suitcase and pulled out a white shirt with billowy sleeves, like the shirts pirates wore in Errol Flynn movies.

    Fiction book (1994)
  • The man wore a protective jumpsuit and the women wore billowy caftans of peacock and rose-colored silk.

    Fiction book (1996)
  • A strong sunlight that seemed to be distilled through billowy clouds shone in through a window on which a gilded Byzantine crucifix was hung.

    Fiction book (1999)
  • The studio's enticing publicity campaign—it was all about Marilyn in a billowy white dress—created a furor.

    Blog text (25)
  • The billowy clouds floated lazily across the sky, casting soft shadows on the ground.

Synonyms

billowing
vsbillowy
5.8

Full of large rounded shapes that move outward, like cloth, smoke, or clouds

focuses on rising and falling motion rather than outward swelling
surging
vsbillowy
4.9

A strong movement forward or upward like a wave

is milder and more rounded describing wide rolling movement instead of force
wavery
vsbillowy
6.5

Moving or looking unsteady and slightly shaking

is about large rolling motion rather than small trembling shifts

Antonyms

1.0

Not moving or making a sound

797 1.0

Level and even without parts higher or lower

How Wavy

turbulent
  • Specialized
7 6.6
billowy
4 6.4
wavy
16 1.3
rippled
3.2
smooth
256 1.0

Surface Forms

billowy positive

Morphology

billowy = billow (transparent) = billow + y

Formed by the noun 'billow' plus the adjectival suffix '-y', meaning 'characterized by or full of billows', which is directly inferable.

Etymology

Billowy comes from the word billow, which means 'large wave' or 'swell'. That's why billowy describes things that rise and fall like a big, soft wave—think of a sail or a cloud filling and moving with the wind.