make waves
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
cause trouble or controversy
Literally: create ripples on water
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
I like a bit of subversion — something that makes waves — although artists always smooth out in the end.’
He's got friends there who've moved on to the staff, and he reckons he can pump them for information without making any official waves.
British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “make waves” mean?
cause trouble or controversy Literally: create ripples on water
Is “make waves” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.