RIPPLE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does ripple mean? 

• RIPPLE (noun)
  The noun RIPPLE has 2 senses:

1. a small wave on the surface of a liquid

2. (electronics) an oscillation of small amplitude imposed on top of a steady value

  Familiarity information: RIPPLE used as a noun is rare.

• RIPPLE (verb)
  The verb RIPPLE has 2 senses:

1. stir up (water) so as to form ripples

2. flow in an irregular current with a bubbling noise

  Familiarity information: RIPPLE used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• RIPPLE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A small wave on the surface of a liquid

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Synonyms:

riffle; ripple; rippling; wavelet

Hypernyms ("ripple" is a kind of...):

moving ridge; wave (one of a series of ridges that moves across the surface of a liquid (especially across a large body of water))

Derivation:

ripple (stir up (water) so as to form ripples)

ripple (flow in an irregular current with a bubbling noise)

Sense 2

Meaning:

(electronics) an oscillation of small amplitude imposed on top of a steady value

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Hypernyms ("ripple" is a kind of...):

oscillation; vibration ((physics) a regular periodic variation in value about a mean)

Domain category:

electronics (the branch of physics that deals with the emission and effects of electrons and with the use of electronic devices)

• RIPPLE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they ripple    ... he / she / it ripples   
Past simple: rippled   
Past participle: rippled   
-ing form: rippling   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Stir up (water) so as to form ripples

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Synonyms:

cockle; riffle; ripple; ruffle; undulate

Hypernyms (to "ripple" is one way to...):

flow; flux (move or progress freely as if in a stream)

"Ripple" entails doing...:

fold; fold up; turn up (bend or lay so that one part covers the other)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

ripple; rippling (a small wave on the surface of a liquid)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Flow in an irregular current with a bubbling noise

Classified under:

Verbs of seeing, hearing, feeling

Synonyms:

babble; bubble; burble; guggle; gurgle; ripple

Context example:

babbling brooks

Hypernyms (to "ripple" is one way to...):

go; sound (make a certain noise or sound)

Verb group:

gurgle (make sounds similar to gurgling water)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Somebody ----s PP

Derivation:

ripple (a small wave on the surface of a liquid)

 Context examples 

Recently, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) and Virgo gravitational wave detectors have begun to catch ripples in spacetime caused by collisions of black holes in distant galaxies.

(Unpredicted stellar black hole discovered by astronomers, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

A previous work revealed high-frequency bursts of neural firing called ripples in the hippocampus during sleep and suggested they play a role in memory storage.

(Study shows how memories ripple through the brain, National Institutes of Health)

The hair rippled up along his back at the sight.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

It was a pleasant arternoon when she awoke; and so quiet, that there warn't a sound but the rippling of that blue sea without a tide, upon the shore.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

And so the circle goes on ever widening, like as the ripples from a stone thrown in the water.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

There now came a sharp whistling in the air from the south, and as they turned their eyes that way they saw ripples in the grass coming from that direction also.

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

She stirred the fire, so that a ripple of light broke from the disturbed coal: the glare, however, as she sat, only threw her face into deeper shadow: mine, it illumined.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

The team’s findings suggested that the coordinated ripples between the MTL and the neocortex may be an important part of that process.

(Our brains may ripple before remembering, National Institutes of Health)

Such mergers will produce ripples through spacetime called gravitational waves.

(Three Black Holes on Collision Course, NASA)

But there was no unusual sound—nothing but the low wash of the ripple and the croaking of the inmates of the wood.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)