to wave goodbye
19
1.3
- phrasal verb
- /weɪv ɡʊdˈbaɪ/
:
despedirse (con la mano)
- After the doors closed behind them, they ran to a foyer window to wave goodbye.
- waved goodbye to her mother
- wave goodbye with a smile
- just waved goodbye
So thank you for watching and maybe just wave goodbye.
- So thank you for watching and maybe just wave goodbye.
- I see you as you were waving goodbye.
- And then I can just, you know, wave goodbye or some other gesture to my old life.
- So let's go through some of the biggest regrets and the happiest to wave goodbye.
Examples
-
Gomez and Morticia stand on the front steps, waving goodbye to their departing guests.
Fiction book (1991) -
"It's a thought," he said, bending down to wave goodbye at the closed car window.
Fiction book (1996) -
We'll either cross him down there, or wave goodbye at the border.
-
I barely waited to wave goodbye before heading up the walk to the front door.
Fiction book (1990) -
"Thank you," the big woman said, and they waved goodbye to her.
Fiction book (1990) -
Jacob steps out of the passenger side and wearily waves goodbye to his ride.
Fiction book (1991) -
During the gray, rainy weather, she sees him on the observation deck, waving goodbye.
Academic text (2016) -
Scarlett put her hand in the bend of his elbow and waved goodbye to Daniel.
Fiction book (1991) -
A week later, Gayla waved goodbye to her old world through the spaceship's porthole.
Fiction book (1998) -
As the bus pulled away, the children waved goodbye to their friends.
Synonyms
584
1.0
To move your hand back and forth to greet or get attention
562
1.0
To tell someone you are leaving and wish them well
42
1.0
Raise your hand and move it to get someone's attention
12
3.8
To tell someone goodbye before you leave, often in a formal or sad way
To say goodbye to someone in a friendly, informal way
Antonyms
How Emotional
- Informal
2
5.0
- Formal
12
3.8
562
1.0
19
1.3
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'to say farewell by moving your hand' is directly and transparently derived from 'wave' (to move one's hand) combined with 'goodbye' (a farewell). This verb + farewell-noun construction is common and maps onto a widely used gesture cross-linguistically, so a B1 learner who knows the constituents will readily understand the MWE.
Etymology
The phrase wave goodbye comes from the simple image of someone moving their hand back and forth in a wave to show 'goodbye'. So wave goodbye means to say farewell by moving your hand.