1.	the file extension for MPEG Audio Layer-3, a set of standards for compressing and downloading audio files from the Internet.

2.	a file compressed in this format. Compare MPEG.

–noun

1.	a disturbance on the surface of a liquid body, as the sea or a lake, in the form of a moving ridge or swell.

2.	any surging or progressing movement or part resembling a wave of the sea: a wave of the pulse.

3.	a swell, surge, or rush, as of feeling or of a certain condition: a wave of disgust sweeping over a person; a wave of cholera throughout the country.

4.	a widespread feeling, opinion, tendency, etc.: a wave of anti-intellectualism; the new wave of installment buying.

5.	a mass movement, as of troops, settlers, or migrating birds.

6.	an outward curve, or one of a series of such curves, in a surface or line; undulation.

7.	an act or instance of waving.

8.	a fluttering sign or signal made with the hand, a flag, etc.: a farewell wave.

9.	natural waviness of the hair, or a special treatment to impart waviness: to have a wave in one's hair; to get a shampoo and a wave.

10.	a period or spell of unusually hot or cold weather.

11.	Physics. a progressive disturbance propagated from point to point in a medium or space without progress or advance by the points themselves, as in the transmission of sound or light.

12.	Literary. a. water. b. a body of water. c. the sea.

13.	(at sports events, esp. baseball games) a momentary standing and sitting back down by spectators in a sequential, lateral way to create, en masse, a wavelike effect visually.

–verb (used without object)

14.	to move freely and gently back and forth or up and down, as by the action of air currents, sea swells, etc.: The flags were waving in the wind.

377 15.

to curve alternately in opposite directions; have an undulating form: The road waved along the valley.

16.	to bend or sway up and down or to and fro, as branches or plants in the wind.

17.	to be moved, esp. alternately in opposite directions: The woman's handkerchief waved in encouragement.

18.	to give a signal by fluttering or flapping something: She waved to me with her hand.

–verb (used with object)

19.	to cause to flutter or have a waving motion in: A night wind waves the tattered banners.

20.	to cause to bend or sway up and down or to and fro: The storm waved the heavy branches of the elm.

21.	to give an undulating form to; cause to curve up and down or in and out.

22.	to give a wavy appearance or pattern to, as silk.

23.	to impart a wave to (the hair).

24.	to move, esp. alternately in opposite directions: to wave the hand.

25.	to signal to by waving a flag or the like; direct by a waving movement: to wave a train to a halt; to wave traffic around an obstacle.

26.	to signify or express by a waving movement: to wave a last good-bye.

—Idiom

27.	make waves, Informal. to disturb the status quo; cause trouble, as by questioning or resisting the accepted rules, procedures, etc.: The best way to stay out of trouble at the office is not to make waves.

–noun

1.	a person or thing that converts.

2.	Electricity. a device that converts alternating current to direct current or vice versa. Compare inverter, synchronous converter.

3.	Metallurgy. a chamber or vessel through which an oxidizing blast of air is forced, as in making steel by the Bessemer process.

4.	Television. decoder (def. 5).

5.	Radio and Television. an auxiliary device that permits a receiver to pick up frequencies or channels for which it was not originally designed.

6.	Physics. a reactor for converting one kind of fuel into another kind.

7.	a person who is engaged in converting textile fabrics, esp. cotton cloths, from the raw state into the finished product ready for the market by bleaching, dyeing, etc.

8.

Also called converter lens. Photography. an additional lens attached to a lens in use on a camera to alter focal length, mounted in front of a lens to produce a wide-angle effect (wide-angle converter) or between the lens and the camera body to produce a telephoto effect (teleconverter or extender).