swell
46
5.7
- noun
- /swɛl/
- Literature
:
mar de fondo
- The surfers eagerly awaited the perfect swell that would bring great waves for riding.
He watched on come over the quiet sea where low grade swells ran colored like pale amethyst.
- He watched on come over the quiet sea where low grade swells ran colored like pale amethyst.
- So imagine you know, you're, you're a boat and there are just in there's an enormous swell in, in the middle of the ocean.
- And then he looks forward and he sees that this is a really heavy duty storm surge, like this giant swells washing over the bow.
- But the swell, the literal swells out there, you know, it's like it basically, you could stay in the same place and the swells aren't moving you.
- And and this headline continues that wave, you know, it makes that swell a little bit deeper and a little bit quicker and picks the wind up a little bit.
- This thing barely works anymore in heavy, heavy swells.
- So when we're navigating people like Mao Piailu, who is like the master, mostly use swells.
- A mountainous rose, swells of diamond surfers dub sparks on the moon's hood, A wolf at the brim of her kind.
Examples
-
As the exhaust grumbled and burbled through gentle swells, Larry reeled in his fish easily.
Academic text (1997) -
Uh, eight miles, 5-foot swells, air temperature is 56 degrees, water is 55.
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- Hey, guys, the swell is happening over on the north shore!
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We have really good consistency with swell.
-
So this is where the swells get pretty serious here.
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That means good swells for south beaches.
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The boat pitched in a sudden swell, nearly throwing Jan from his pilot's chair.
Fiction book (1995) -
The farther we get from Astoria, the more the ship rolls, with swells exceeding six feet.
Academic text (2002) -
She can hit a 40-foot swell and not even put a ripple across your martini.
-
But the swell, the literal swells out there, you know, it's like it basically, you could stay in the same place and the swells aren't moving you.
Synonyms
759
1.0
A moving ridge of water or a traveling motion such as sound and light
7
7.4
A large rolling wave on the sea
1
6.9
A long deep wave in the sea from storms far away or earthquakes
Large rolling waves that make the sea rise and fall
Compounds
- Specialized
A scale that shows how high sea waves and long smooth waves are
How High
Surface Forms
Etymology
Swell for a long ocean wave also comes from 'to rise' — the sea surface seems to swell into a smooth, regular wave moving across the water. So a sea swell is a steady, rolling wave caused by distant winds or storms.