TIDAL WAVE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does tidal wave mean? 

• TIDAL WAVE (noun)
  The noun TIDAL WAVE has 3 senses:

1. an overwhelming manifestation of some emotion or phenomenon

2. an unusual (and often destructive) rise of water along the seashore caused by a storm or a combination of wind and high tide

3. a wave resulting from the periodic flow of the tides that is caused by the gravitational attraction of the moon and sun

  Familiarity information: TIDAL WAVE used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• TIDAL WAVE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

An overwhelming manifestation of some emotion or phenomenon

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Context example:

a tidal wave of crime

Hypernyms ("tidal wave" is a kind of...):

manifestation (a clear appearance)

Sense 2

Meaning:

An unusual (and often destructive) rise of water along the seashore caused by a storm or a combination of wind and high tide

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Hypernyms ("tidal wave" is a kind of...):

calamity; cataclysm; catastrophe; disaster; tragedy (an event resulting in great loss and misfortune)

moving ridge; wave (one of a series of ridges that moves across the surface of a liquid (especially across a large body of water))

Sense 3

Meaning:

A wave resulting from the periodic flow of the tides that is caused by the gravitational attraction of the moon and sun

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Hypernyms ("tidal wave" is a kind of...):

moving ridge; wave (one of a series of ridges that moves across the surface of a liquid (especially across a large body of water))

 Context examples 

He was mastered by the sheer surging of life, the tidal wave of being, the perfect joy of each separate muscle, joint, and sinew in that it was everything that was not death, that it was aglow and rampant, expressing itself in movement, flying exultantly under the stars and over the face of dead matter that did not move.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)