Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definitions: Billowing |
BillowingAdjective1. Moving in surges and billows and rolls; "billowing smoke from burning houses"; "the rolling fog"; "the rolling sea"; "the tumbling water of the rapids". 2. Characterized by great swelling waves or surges; "billowy storm clouds"; "the restless billowing sea"; "surging waves". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "billowing" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1380. (references) |
Synonyms: BillowingSynonyms: billowing(a) (adj), billowy (adj), rolling (adj), surging (adj), tumbling (adj). (additional references) |
Crosswords: Billowing |
| English words defined with "billowing": billowy ♦ surging. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "billowing": WHANGDEPOOTENAWAH. (references) |
| Domain | Title |
Music |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | A huge, billowing pair of gas and dust clouds is captured in this stunning Hubble telescope ...Credit: NASA. |  | Observing tent on Sequam Island Note wind causing billowing tent.Credit: Coast & Geodetic Survey Historical Image Collection. |
 | U.S. Marines advance after Marine close-air fighters plaster targets ahead during fighting in Korea. Billowing smoke and flames from the small, tight target areas bear out the accuracy of the flying Leathernecks' marksmanship. (Marine Corps photo). |  | Woman holding billowing red flag in image used for International Women's Day, March 8, 1914.Credit: Library of Congress. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Lexicography | Devil's Dictionary | WHANGDEPOOTENAWAH, n. In the Ojibwa tongue, disaster; an unexpected affliction that strikes hard. Should you ask me whence this laughter, Whence this audible big-smiling, With its labial extension, With its maxillar distortion And its diaphragmic rhythmus Like the billowing of an ocean, Like the shaking of a carpet, I should answer, I should tell you: From the great deeps of the spirit, From the unplummeted abysmus Of the soul this laughter welleth As the fountain, the gug-guggle, Like the river from the canon [sic], To entoken and give warning That my present mood is sunny. Should you ask me further question -- Why the great deeps of the spirit, Why the unplummeted abysmus Of the soule extrudes this laughter, This all audible big-smiling, I should answer, I should tell you With a white heart, tumpitumpy, With a true tongue, honest Injun: William Bryan, he has Caught It, Caught the Whangdepootenawah! Is't the sandhill crane, the shankank, Standing in the marsh, the kneedeep, Standing silent in the kneedeep With his wing-tips crossed behind him And his neck close-reefed before him, With his bill, his william, buried In the down upon his bosom, With his head retracted inly, While his shoulders overlook it? Does the sandhill crane, the shankank, Shiver grayly in the north wind, Wishing he had died when little, As the sparrow, the chipchip, does? No 'tis not the Shankank standing, Standing in the gray and dismal Marsh, the gray and dismal kneedeep. No, 'tis peerless William Bryan Realizing that he's Caught It, Caught the Whangdepootenawah! |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| Speaker | Term | Phrase(s) |
Ronald Reagan | 1981-1989 | Until then, we see all that rhetorical smoke, billowing out from the Democrats, well ladies and gentlemen, I'd follow the example of their nominee. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| "Billowing" is generally used as a lexical verb (-ing form) -- approximately 76.92% of the time. "Billowing" is used about 104 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Lexical Verb (-ing form) | 76.92% | 80 | 37,112 |
| Adjective (general or positive) | 22.12% | 23 | 72,767 |
| Noun (singular) | 0.96% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Total | 100.00% | 104 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| Language | Translations for "billowing"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||
French | flottant. (various references) | ||||||||||
German | wogend (billowy, surging, undulating). (various references) | ||||||||||
Pig Latin | illowingbay tãlãzuire (surge). (various references) | ||||||||||
Misspellings | |
"Billowing" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: belloming, bellowings, billowings, bilowing, Brillouin. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "billowing" (pronounced bi"lōing) |
| 4 | -l ō i ng | bellowing, following, hollowing, mellowing, swallowing, wallowing, yellowing. |
| 3 | -ō i ng | borrowing, burrowing, echoing, foreshadowing, harrowing, narrowing, overshadowing, shadowing, vetoing, zeroing. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "b-g-i-i-l-l-n-o-w" | |
-2 letters: billing, billion, blowing, boiling, bolling, bowling, willing. | |
-3 letters: billon, billow, bowing, globin, goblin, lowing, oiling, wiling. | |
-4 letters: bingo, blini, blown, boing, lingo, owing. | |
-5 letters: bill, blin, blow, boil, boll, bong, bowl, gill, glib, glob, glow, gown, ling, lino, lion, loin, long, lown, nill, noil, will, wing, wino. | |
| Words containing the letters "b-g-i-i-l-l-n-o-w" | |
+3 letters: disbowelling. | |
+5 letters: disembowelling, whistleblowing. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)42 69 6C 6C 6F 77 69 6E 67 |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
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| American Sign Language (origins from 1620-1817 in Italy and, especially, France) (references)
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| Semaphore (1791, in France) (references)
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| Braille (1829, in France) (references)
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Morse Code (1836) (references)-... .. .-.. .-.. --- .--. .. -. --. |
| Dancing Men (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1903) (references)
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Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)01000010 01101001 01101100 01101100 01101111 01110111 01101001 01101110 01100111 |
HTML Code (1990) (references)B i l l o w i n g |
ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)0042 0069 006C 006C 006F 0077 0069 006E 0067 |
| British Sign Language (Fingerspelling, BSL; 1992, British Deaf Association Dictionary of British Sign Language) (references)
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Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)367578788189758073 |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Commercial | 5. Images: Slideshow 6. Images: Photo Album 7. Quotations: Non-fiction 8. Quotations: Speeches | 9. Usage Frequency 10. Translations: Modern 11. Derivations 12. Rhymes | 13. Anagrams 14. Orthography 15. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
