"make waves" meaning in English

See make waves in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Audio: En-au-make waves.ogg Forms: makes waves [present, singular, third-person], making waves [participle, present], made waves [participle, past], made waves [past]
Etymology: Derived from disruptions caused by waves in water. Head templates: {{en-verb|make<,,made> waves}} make waves (third-person singular simple present makes waves, present participle making waves, simple past and past participle made waves)
  1. (idiomatic) To cause a disturbance. Tags: idiomatic Translations (To cause a disturbance): aiheuttaa kuohuntaa (Finnish), faire des vagues (French)
    Sense id: en-make_waves-en-verb-VNht~v27 Disambiguation of 'To cause a disturbance': 98 1 0
  2. (idiomatic) To upset the status quo. Tags: idiomatic Synonyms (upset the status quo): rock the boat
    Sense id: en-make_waves-en-verb-Shc194of Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Entries with translation boxes, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries, Terms with Finnish translations, Terms with French translations Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 13 63 23 Disambiguation of Entries with translation boxes: 18 67 16 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 20 59 21 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 13 67 21 Disambiguation of Terms with Finnish translations: 20 63 17 Disambiguation of Terms with French translations: 22 60 18 Disambiguation of 'upset the status quo': 4 96 0
  3. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see make, wave. Synonyms: nonconform Related terms: ruffle some feathers
    Sense id: en-make_waves-en-verb-UYP9dG33

Inflected forms

{
  "etymology_text": "Derived from disruptions caused by waves in water.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "makes waves",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "making waves",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "made waves",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "made waves",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "make<,,made> waves"
      },
      "expansion": "make waves (third-person singular simple present makes waves, present participle making waves, simple past and past participle made waves)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [],
      "glosses": [
        "To cause a disturbance."
      ],
      "id": "en-make_waves-en-verb-VNht~v27",
      "links": [
        [
          "disturbance",
          "disturbance"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To cause a disturbance."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "_dis1": "98 1 0",
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "To cause a disturbance",
          "word": "aiheuttaa kuohuntaa"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "98 1 0",
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "To cause a disturbance",
          "word": "faire des vagues"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "13 63 23",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "18 67 16",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Entries with translation boxes",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "20 59 21",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "13 67 21",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "20 63 17",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Finnish translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "22 60 18",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with French translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To upset the status quo."
      ],
      "id": "en-make_waves-en-verb-Shc194of",
      "links": [
        [
          "upset",
          "upset"
        ],
        [
          "status quo",
          "status quo"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To upset the status quo."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "_dis1": "4 96 0",
          "sense": "upset the status quo",
          "word": "rock the boat"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    },
    {
      "glosses": [
        "Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see make, wave."
      ],
      "id": "en-make_waves-en-verb-UYP9dG33",
      "links": [
        [
          "make",
          "make#English"
        ],
        [
          "wave",
          "wave#English"
        ]
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "_dis1": "33 13 54",
          "word": "ruffle some feathers"
        }
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "_dis1": "34 14 53",
          "word": "nonconform"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-make waves.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/9/90/En-au-make_waves.ogg/En-au-make_waves.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/90/En-au-make_waves.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "word": "make waves"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English verbs",
    "Entries with translation boxes",
    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries",
    "Terms with Finnish translations",
    "Terms with French translations"
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Derived from disruptions caused by waves in water.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "makes waves",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "making waves",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "made waves",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "made waves",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "make<,,made> waves"
      },
      "expansion": "make waves (third-person singular simple present makes waves, present participle making waves, simple past and past participle made waves)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "ruffle some feathers"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English idioms"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To cause a disturbance."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "disturbance",
          "disturbance"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To cause a disturbance."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English idioms"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To upset the status quo."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "upset",
          "upset"
        ],
        [
          "status quo",
          "status quo"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To upset the status quo."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    },
    {
      "glosses": [
        "Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see make, wave."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "make",
          "make#English"
        ],
        [
          "wave",
          "wave#English"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-make waves.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/9/90/En-au-make_waves.ogg/En-au-make_waves.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/90/En-au-make_waves.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "sense": "upset the status quo",
      "word": "rock the boat"
    },
    {
      "word": "nonconform"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "To cause a disturbance",
      "word": "aiheuttaa kuohuntaa"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "To cause a disturbance",
      "word": "faire des vagues"
    }
  ],
  "word": "make waves"
}

Download raw JSONL data for make waves meaning in English (2.0kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-01-03 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-01-01 using wiktextract (eaedd02 and 8fbd9e8). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.