Dictionary

billowy en · ADJ

Pronunciation

• (Southern-England) audio
• /ˈbɪ.ləʊ.(w)i/ (UK)

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *bʰelǵʰ-der. Proto-Germanic *belganą Proto-Germanic *bulgijō Old Norse bylgjabor. Middle English *bilwe English billow Proto-Indo-European *-kos Proto-Germanic *-gaz Proto-West Germanic *-g Old English -iġ Middle English -y English -y English billowy From billow + -y.

Meanings

1. Swelling or swollen into large waves; full of billows or surges; resembling billows.
   • He was shabby and careless, with inkstains on the sleeves of his jacket, and his cravat was large and billowy, under a chin shaped like the toe of an old boot. 1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part I, page 200:
   • […] Tiare clasped me to her vast bosom, so that I seemed to sink into a billowy sea, and pressed her red lips to mine. 1919, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, chapter LVIII, in The Moon and Sixpence, [New York, N.Y.]: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers […], →OCLC:
   • This allows the muscular man to order a suit whose jacket fits him in the chest and shoulders and is not billowy through the waist and hips; and whose trousers fit him in the waist but whose legs are not reminiscent of harem pants. 2006, Nicholas Antongiavanni [pseudonym; Michael Anton], The Suit: A Machiavellian Approach to Men's Style, New York: HarperCollins Publishers, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 28:

Forms

Deriveds

billowiness

Translations (7)

tr dalga dalga (full of billows or surges) · de wogend (full of billows or surges) · de wellig (full of billows or surges) · mi tāpokopoko (full of billows or surges) · bg хълмист (full of billows or surges) · es onduloso (full of billows or surges) · tr dalgalı (full of billows or surges)