up to Idioms

Make waves

Contribute an edit

Submissions are moderated and will not appear immediately.

Text

Allowed HTML: <em>, <strong>, <i>, <a href>, <p>, <ul>, <ol>, <li>, <sup>, <sub>. Links must be internal relative URLs.
Anything else, eg suggestion of category change, scientific name etc.
Photo of waves breaking on the shore.
To make waves means to cause trouble or disagreement, often by speaking up and challenging how things are normally done.

The phrase comes from the image of calm water being disturbed so that waves form on the surface. It began to be used in the early 1900s to describe actions that create noticeable disruption.

She did not want to make waves on her first day at the new job, so she kept her concerns to herself.