ebb

low, shallow

Adjective

  1. low, shallow
    • All the sea lying betweene, is verie ebbe, full of shallowes and shelves - 1601, C[aius] Plinius Secundus [i.e., Pliny the Elder], “(please specify |book=I to XXXVII)”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Historie of the...

Origin

From Middle English ebbe, from Old English ebba (“ebb, tide”), from Proto-West Germanic *abbjā, from Proto-Germanic *abjô, *abjǭ, from Proto-Germanic *ab (“off, away”), from Proto-Indo-European *apó. See also West Frisian ebbe, Dutch eb, German Ebbe, Danish ebbe, Old Norse efja (“countercurrent”), Old English af. More at of, off.

Forms

ebber ebbest ebbe

Noun

  1. The receding movement of the tide.
    • The boats will go out on the ebb.
    • Thou shoreless flood which in thy ebb and flow / Claspest the limits of morality! - 1824, Mary Shelley, Time:
    • Men come from distant parts to admire the tides of Solway, which race in at flood and retreat at ebb with a greater speed than a horse can follow. - 1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide:
  2. A gradual decline.
    • Thus all the treasure of our flowing years, / Our ebb of life for ever takes away. - 1684, Wentworth Dillon, 4th Earl of Roscommon, Essay on Translated Verse:
    • This reflection thawed my congealing blood, and again the tide of life and love flowed impetuously onward, again to ebb as my busy thoughts changed. - 1826, [Mary Shelley], The Last Man. […], volume (please specify...
    • Industrialism hasn’t been an abiding set of activities in any particular place but rather a dynamic cycle, of takeoff, peak, and ebb. - 2012, James Howard Kunstler, Too Much Magic, page 74:
  3. A low state; a state of depression.
    • Painting was then at its lowest ebb. - 1695, C[harles] A[lphonse] du Fresnoy, translated by John Dryden, De Arte Graphica. The Art of Painting, […], London: […] J[ohn] Heptinstall for W. Rogers, […], →OCLC:
    • A "lowest ebb" implies something singular and finite, but for many of us, born in the Depression and raised by parents distrustful of fortune, an "ebb" might easily have lasted for years. - 2002, Joyce Carol Oates, The...
    • The 1987 book British Piers was written at a time when Britain's seaside resorts were perhaps at their lowest ebb, with a groundswell of support for rejuvenation and conservation just beginning. - 2020 July 29, Dr...
  4. A European bunting, the corn bunting (Emberiza calandra, syns. Emberiza miliaria, Milaria calandra).

Forms

ebbs ebbe

Antonyms

flood flow

Related

neap tide

Derived

at a low ebb ebb and flow ebbless ebb tide

Verb

  1. to flow back or recede
    • The tides ebbed at noon.

    Synonyms: go out go down ooze reflux wane

  2. to fall away or decline
    • The dying man's strength ebbed away.
  3. to fish with stakes and nets that serve to prevent the fish from getting back into the sea with the ebb
  4. To cause to flow back.
    • Parts of this town do not want a big influx of gay people and are trying to ebb it. - 1977 August 20, Robin Nicholson, quotee, “7 Arrested in Undercover Raid on P'town Bar”, in Gay Community News, volume 5, number 7,...

Origin

From Middle English ebben, from Old English ebbian, from Proto-West Germanic *abbjōn (“to ebb”).

Forms

ebbs ebbing ebbed ebbe

Derived

unebbing