Literary notes about Undulate (AI summary)
Writers consistently employ "undulate" to evoke the image of smooth, wavelike motion or softly curving outlines. In some texts it describes natural phenomena—a violent east wind causing tall heather to flow like a tranquil sheet of water [1], or the ground shifting subtly beneath the influence of mirage effects [2]. In other contexts, the word lends grace to ornamental details, as when a shell is depicted with undulate outlines [3] or fabric seems to sway with rhythmic elegance. At times, its use stretches into the metaphorical, suggesting that even the air or the essence of nature itself moves in a perpetual, living dance [4].
- A violent east wind causes the tall heather, now of the color of dead leaves, to undulate like a peaceful sheet of water.
— from The Carlovingian Coins; Or, The Daughters of Charlemagne A Tale of the Ninth Century by Eugène Sue - The soil appeared to undulate, from the effect of mirage, without a breath of wind being felt.
— from Personal Narrative of Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of America, During the Year 1799-1804 — Volume 2 by Alexander von Humboldt - Shell slender, conical, with undulate outlines.
— from Report on the Radiolaria Collected by H.M.S. Challenger During the Years 1873-1876, Second Part: Subclass Osculosa; IndexReport on the Scientific Results of the Voyage of H.M.S. Challenger During the Years 1873-76, Vol. XVIII by Ernst Haeckel - A man of thought must feel the thought that is parent of the universe, that the masses of nature do undulate and flow.
— from Representative Men: Seven Lectures by Ralph Waldo Emerson
