undulate

undulate leaf

un·du·late

(ŭn′jə-lāt′, ŭn′dyə-, -də-)

v. un·du·lat·ed, un·du·lat·ing, un·du·lates

v.intr.

1. To move in waves or with a smooth, wavelike motion: "gleaming seaweed that curls and undulates with the tide" (Willa Cather).

2. To have a wavelike appearance or form: dunes that undulate toward the sea.

3. To increase and decrease in volume or pitch.

v.tr.

1. To cause to move in a smooth wavelike motion: The dancer undulated her hips.

2. To give a wavelike appearance or form to: The rock strata are undulated.

adj. (-lĭt, -lāt′)

Having a wavy outline or appearance: leaves with undulate margins.

[From Late Latin undula, small wave, diminutive of Latin unda, wave; see wed- in Indo-European roots.]

un′du·la·to′ry (-lə-tôr′ē) adj.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

undulating

(ˈʌndjʊˌleɪtɪŋ)

adj

1. moving in waves or as if in waves

2. having a wavy form or appearance

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

Translations

undulating

[ˈʌndjʊleɪtɪŋ] ADJ → ondulante, ondeante; [land] → ondulado

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

undulating

[ˈʌndjʊleɪtɪŋ] adj → ondoyant(e)

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

undulating

adj movement, line → wellenförmig; waves, sea → wogend; hair → wallend; countryside → hügelig; hills → sanft; path → auf und ab führend; hips → wiegend

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

undulating

[ˈʌndjʊˌleɪtɪŋ] adj (surface) → ondulato/a; (countryside) → collinoso/a; (sea) → ondeggiante

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

Its fantastic colors are more brilliant and beautiful than the sun on the undulating waters.

View in context

Whether it was that this undulating tester rolled the savage away to far distant scenes, I know not, but he now spoke of his native island; and, eager to hear his history, I begged him to go on and tell it.

View in context

The air and water were shining in the beams of the morning sun; on the shore the sailors were sitting, chatting and laughing; and at ten yards from them the boat was at anchor, undulating gracefully on the water.

View in context

Sometimes the landscape towered into bold and mountainous heights that partook of sublimity; at other times, it stretched along the water side in fresh smiling meadows, and graceful undulating valleys.

View in context

It was encamped on a slight rise of the undulating road, and from where I stood tents and vans and men were clearly silhouetted against the sky.

View in context

No, there was nothing but land--slightly undulating, I knew, because often our wheels ground against the brake as we went down into a hollow and lurched up again on the other side.

View in context

The undulating common seemed now dark almost to blackness, except where its roadways lay grey and pale under the deep blue sky of the early night.

View in context

The forest at the farthest extremity of the panorama seemed carved in some precious stone of a yellowish-green color; its undulating outline was silhouetted against the horizon and was pierced beyond Valuevo by the Smolensk highroad crowded with troops.

View in context

I had crossed a marshy tract full of willows, bulrushes, and odd, outlandish, swampy trees; and I had now come out upon the skirts of an open piece of undulating, sandy country, about a mile long, dotted with a few pines and a great number of contorted trees, not unlike the oak in growth, but pale in the foliage, like willows.

View in context

To the north-eastward, the glare of snow lay under the starlight of the sable sky and I could see an undulating crest of hillocks pinkish white.

View in context

This region, which resembles one of the immeasurable steppes of Asia, has not inaptly been termed "the great American desert." It spreads forth into undulating and treeless plains, and desolate sandy wastes wearisome to the eye from their extent and monotony, and which are supposed by geologists to have formed the ancient floor of the ocean, countless ages since, when its primeval waves beat against the granite bases of the Rocky Mountains.

View in context

Night had fallen and he traveled high along the upper terrace where the gorgeous tropic moon lighted the dizzy pathway through the gently undulating branches of the tree tops.

View in context