"wave goodbye" meaning in English

See wave goodbye in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Forms: waves goodbye [present, singular, third-person], waving goodbye [participle, present], waved goodbye [participle, past], waved goodbye [past]
Head templates: {{en-verb|*}} wave goodbye (third-person singular simple present waves goodbye, present participle waving goodbye, simple past and past participle waved goodbye)
  1. (idiomatic) To say goodbye by means of a handwave. Tags: idiomatic Translations (to say goodbye by means of a handwave): 揮別 /挥别 (huībié) (Chinese Mandarin)
    Sense id: en-wave_goodbye-en-verb-AOgRAB1V Disambiguation of 'to say goodbye by means of a handwave': 71 29
  2. (figurative) Synonym of say goodbye (“cease to have, or have to do, something”) Tags: figuratively Synonyms: say goodbye [synonym, synonym-of]
    Sense id: en-wave_goodbye-en-verb-kbPSZU0G Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Entries with translation boxes, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries, Terms with Mandarin translations Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 44 56 Disambiguation of Entries with translation boxes: 33 67 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 31 69 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 24 76 Disambiguation of Terms with Mandarin translations: 21 79

Inflected forms

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "waves goodbye",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "waving goodbye",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "waved goodbye",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "waved goodbye",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "wave goodbye (third-person singular simple present waves goodbye, present participle waving goodbye, simple past and past participle waved goodbye)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [],
      "glosses": [
        "To say goodbye by means of a handwave."
      ],
      "id": "en-wave_goodbye-en-verb-AOgRAB1V",
      "links": [
        [
          "say goodbye",
          "say goodbye"
        ],
        [
          "handwave",
          "handwave"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To say goodbye by means of a handwave."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "_dis1": "71 29",
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "roman": "huībié",
          "sense": "to say goodbye by means of a handwave",
          "word": "揮別 /挥别"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "44 56",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "33 67",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Entries with translation boxes",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "31 69",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "24 76",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "21 79",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Mandarin translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              167,
              179
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2024 February 7, Mel Holley, “Network News: LNER ditches Off-Peak for 70min semi-flexible fare”, in RAIL, number 1002, page 7:",
          "text": "\"At the moment, you know the maximum you pay [to go between London and Scotland] is £87 on a Sunday afternoon. And it's refundable. Now, if your plans change, you can wave goodbye to your money.\"",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Synonym of say goodbye (“cease to have, or have to do, something”)"
      ],
      "id": "en-wave_goodbye-en-verb-kbPSZU0G",
      "links": [
        [
          "say goodbye",
          "say goodbye#English"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(figurative) Synonym of say goodbye (“cease to have, or have to do, something”)"
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "extra": "cease to have, or have to do, something",
          "tags": [
            "synonym",
            "synonym-of"
          ],
          "word": "say goodbye"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "figuratively"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "wave goodbye"
}
{
  "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 Mandarin translations"
  ],
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "waves goodbye",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "waving goodbye",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "waved goodbye",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "waved goodbye",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "wave goodbye (third-person singular simple present waves goodbye, present participle waving goodbye, simple past and past participle waved goodbye)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English idioms"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To say goodbye by means of a handwave."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "say goodbye",
          "say goodbye"
        ],
        [
          "handwave",
          "handwave"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To say goodbye by means of a handwave."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              167,
              179
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2024 February 7, Mel Holley, “Network News: LNER ditches Off-Peak for 70min semi-flexible fare”, in RAIL, number 1002, page 7:",
          "text": "\"At the moment, you know the maximum you pay [to go between London and Scotland] is £87 on a Sunday afternoon. And it's refundable. Now, if your plans change, you can wave goodbye to your money.\"",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Synonym of say goodbye (“cease to have, or have to do, something”)"
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "say goodbye",
          "say goodbye#English"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(figurative) Synonym of say goodbye (“cease to have, or have to do, something”)"
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "extra": "cease to have, or have to do, something",
          "tags": [
            "synonym",
            "synonym-of"
          ],
          "word": "say goodbye"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "figuratively"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "roman": "huībié",
      "sense": "to say goodbye by means of a handwave",
      "word": "揮別 /挥别"
    }
  ],
  "word": "wave goodbye"
}

Download raw JSONL data for wave goodbye 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 2025-04-10 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-04-03 using wiktextract (74c5344 and fb63907). 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.