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Definition of "billow" [bil•low]

  • A large wave or swell of water. (noun)
  • A great swell, surge, or undulating mass, as of smoke or sound. (noun)
  • To surge or roll in billows. (verb-intransitive)
  • To swell out or bulge: sheets billowing in the breeze. (verb-intransitive)
  • To cause to billow: wind that billowed the sails. (verb-transitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "billow" in a sentence
  • "If ever it comes into my life again (a friend or family with breast cancer) a billow is the ideal gift."
  • "Made from 100% old-vine Roussanne, it's rich and weighty but not ponderous — and its exotic aromas of flowers, fruits and spice simply billow from the glass."
  • "All the glories of Byzantium seemed to billow from the folds of her long silk stole, which, when she was presenting the Poetry prize to John Haynes, fell from her shoulders like a stream of molten gold."