ripple

noun

1. A moving disturbance, or undulation, in the surface of a fluid.

   “I dropped a small stone into the pond and watched the ripples spread.”

   “What seamen call the "ripples" are also very violent in the straits, the sea appearing to boil and foam and dance like the rapids below a cataract; vessels are swept about helplessly, and small ones are occasionally swamped in the finest weather and under the brightest skies.”

   “Ripples in the water betray the presence of the fish waiting for a chance to pounce on the insects skirting over the water.”

2. One of a series of corrugations in flat surface.

   “The ebbing tide had left ripples in the sand.”

3. A sound similar to that of undulating water.
4. A style of ice cream in which flavors have been coarsely blended together.

   “I enjoy fudge ripple ice cream, but I especially like to dig through the carton to get at the ripple part and eat only that.”

5. A small oscillation of an otherwise steady signal.
6. (figuratively)A small spreading change, impact, or effect produced by a larger or more consequential action.

   “Investments in research, deployment and scaling existing technologies are the initial ripples that will have to build to a groundswell of further action.”

7. An implement, with teeth like those of a comb, for removing the seeds and seed vessels from flax, broom corn, etc.
8. (dialectal, historical)thripple, cart ladder (extension for cart or wagon)

verb

1. (intransitive)To move like the undulating surface of a body of water; to undulate.
2. (intransitive)To propagate like a moving wave.

   “These problems were complicated by a foreign exchange crunch which rippled through the economy in 1961-1962, […]”

3. (intransitive)To make a sound as of water running gently over a rough bottom, or the breaking of ripples on the shore.
4. (transitive)To shape into a series of ripples.
5. (transitive)To launch or unleash in rapid succession.

   “Hearns' 'Mech rippled fifteen missiles. Austen watched the missiles go in. They smashed into a copse of trees, smashing the trunks aside.”

6. (transitive)To scratch, tear, or break slightly; graze

   “An horsemans javelin[…]having slightly rippled the skinne of his left arme, pierced within his short ribs.”

7. To remove the seeds from (the stalks of flax, etc.), by means of a ripple.

name

1. (countable, uncountable)A village and civil parish in Dover district, Kent, England (OS grid ref TR3450).
2. (countable, uncountable)A village and civil parish in Malvern Hills district, Worcestershire, England (OS grid ref SO8737).
3. (countable, uncountable)A surname.