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.1869, Alfred Russel Wallace, The Malay Archipelago, volume I, London: Macmillan and Co., page 239:
1 more example
Ripples in the water betray the presence of the fish waiting for a chance to pounce on the insects skirting over the water.2009, Helen Oon, “New Territories”, in Hong Kong (Globetrotters Travel Guide), New Holland Publishers, →ISBN, page 80:
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.
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.2025 September 11, Kate Marvel, “‘We’ve done it before’: how not to lose hope in the fight against ecological disaster”, in The Guardian:
To move like the undulating surface of a body of water; to undulate.
2
To propagate like a moving wave.
These problems were complicated by a foreign exchange crunch which rippled through the economy in 1961-1962, […]2008, Bradley Simpson, Economists with Guns, page 65:
3
To make a sound as of water running gently over a rough bottom, or the breaking of ripples on the shore.
4
To shape into a series of ripples.
5
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.2019, Jason M. Hardy, Phaedra M. Weldon, Herbert A. Beas II, BattleTech: Weapons Free: BattleCorps Anthology, Volume 3:
Etymology From Middle English *ripelen, repulen, equivalent to rip + -le (frequentative suffix).
1
To scratch, tear, or break slightly; graze
An horsemans javelin[…]having slightly rippled the skinne of his left arme, pierced within his short ribs.1609, Ammianus Marcellinus, translated by Philemon Holland, The Roman Historie, […], London: […] Adam Jslip, →OCLC:
ripple
noun
Etymology Compare German Low German Repel, Dutch repel, German Riffel, extended forms (with instrumental or diminutive -le) of Low German Repe (“ripple”), Dutch repe (“ripple”). Compare also Dutch repen, German reffen, Swedish repa (“to beat; ripple”). The verb is from Middle English ripplen, rypelen. Compare Low German repelen, Dutch repelen, German riffeln.
1
Business, Manufacturing, Textiles An implement, with teeth like those of a comb, for removing the seeds and seed vessels from flax, broom corn, etc.
Etymology Compare German Low German Repel, Dutch repel, German Riffel, extended forms (with instrumental or diminutive -le) of Low German Repe (“ripple”), Dutch repe (“ripple”). Compare also Dutch repen, German reffen, Swedish repa (“to beat; ripple”). The verb is from Middle English ripplen, rypelen. Compare Low German repelen, Dutch repelen, German riffeln.
1
To remove the seeds from (the stalks of flax, etc.), by means of a ripple.