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ebb - definition and meaning
Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun The receding or outgoing tide, occurring between the time when the tide is highest and the time when the following tide is lowest.
- noun A period of decline or diminution.
- intransitive verb To fall back from the flood stage.
- intransitive verb To fall away or back; decline or recede. synonym: recede.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The reflux or falling of the tide; the return of tide-water toward the sea: opposed to flood or flow. See
tide . - noun A flowing backward or away; decline; decay; a gradual falling off or diminution: as, the ebb of prosperity; crime is on the ebb.
- noun A name of the common bunting, Emberiza miliaria. Montagu.
- Not deep; shallow.
- To flow back; return, as the water of a tide, toward the ocean; subside: opposed to flow: as, the tide ebbs and flows twice in twenty-four hours. See
tide . - To return or recede; fall away; decline.
- Synonyms To recede, retire, decrease, sink, lower, wane, fall away.
- To cause to subside.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun The reflux or flowing back of the tide; the return of the tidal wave toward the sea; -- opposed to
flood . - noun The state or time of passing away; a falling from a better to a worse state; low state or condition; decline; decay.
- noun the alternate ebb and flood of the tide; often used figuratively.
- intransitive verb To flow back; to return, as the water of a tide toward the ocean; -- opposed to
flow . - intransitive verb To return or fall back from a better to a worse state; to decline; to decay; to recede.
- noun (Zoöl.) The European bunting.
- transitive verb obsolete To cause to flow back.
- adjective Receding; going out; falling; shallow; low.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun The receding movement of the
tide . - noun A gradual decline
- noun low state, state of depression
- noun The European bunting
- verb to flow back or
recede - verb to fall away or
decline - verb to fish with stakes and nets that serve to prevent the fish from getting back into the sea with the ebb
- adjective
low ,shallow
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun the outward flow of the tide
- verb flow back or recede
- noun a gradual decline (in size or strength or power or number)
- verb fall away or decline
- verb hem in fish with stakes and nets so as to prevent them from going back into the sea with the ebb
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
[Middle English ebbe, from Old English ebba; see apo- in Indo-European roots.]
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
From Middle English ebbe, from Old English ebba ("ebb, tide"), from Proto-Germanic *abjô, *abjōn (compare West Frisian ebbe, Dutch eb, German Ebbe, Old Norse efja ("countercurrent"), from Proto-Germanic *ab (“off, away”), from Proto-Indo-European *apó. (compare Old English af). More at of, off.
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word ebb.
Examples
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But I also hear what you say about blogging having a certain ebb-and-flow energy to it.
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This point, or ebb, is called the uncanny valley - see the chart below.
Archive 2008-12-01 zombietron 2008
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This point, or ebb, is called the uncanny valley - see the chart below.
The distant future, the year 2000 zombietron 2008
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My appreciation for Joe Biden has been subject to a certain ebb and flow over the years.
Archive 2004-10-01 2004
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My appreciation for Joe Biden has been subject to a certain ebb and flow over the years.
Panic is passe... 2004
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My appreciation for Joe Biden has been subject to a certain ebb and flow over the years.
Quote of the Day 2004
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My appreciation for Joe Biden has been subject to a certain ebb and flow over the years.
Sic 'em, John! 2004
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During that period, which dates from the founding of the journal Annales in 1929, a succession of eminent French scholars taught the history profession to turn its back on politics and to contemplate the long-term ebb and flow of currents running deep beneath the frothy stuff of battles and elections.
Revolution sans Revolutionaries Darnton, Robert 1985
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"What made you try the South Channel in ebb tide and an inshore wind?"
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"It is vat you call ebb," said the French captain.
Marmaduke Merry A Tale of Naval Adventures in Bygone Days William Henry Giles Kingston 1847
Related Words
synonyms (240)
Words with the same meaning
- abate
- ablate
- advance
- ascend
- back
- back up
- bate
- be eaten away
- budge
- calm
- calm down
- catabasis
- cease
- cessation
- change
- change place
- circle
- climb
- collapse
- comedown
- consume
- consume away
- corrode
- course
- crash
- crumble
- dead set
- dead stand
- dead stop
- deadlock
- debasement
- decadence
- decadency
- decay
- deceleration
- declension
- declination
- decline
- decline and fall
- decrease
- decrescendo
- deformation
- degeneracy
- degenerateness
- degeneration
- degradation
- deliquesce
- demotion
- depravation
- depravedness
- depreciation
- derogation
- descend
- descent
- deterioration
- devolution
- die
- die away
- die down
- diminish
- diminuendo
- direct tide
- dive
- downtrend
- downturn
- downward mobility
- downward trend
- drift away
- drop
- drop off
- dwindle
- dwindling
- dying
- dying down
- ease off
- ebb and flow
- ebb tide
- ebbing
- effeteness
- erode
- fade
- fade away
- fading
- fail
- failing
- failure
- failure of nerve
- fall
- fall away
- fall off
- falling
- falling-off
- flood
- flood tide
- flow
- flow back
- flow in
- flow out
- flush
- flux
- flux and reflux
- full stop
- full tide
- get over
- go
- go around
- go away
- go down
- go downhill
- go off
- go round
- go sideways
- gush
- gyrate
- halt
- high tide
- high water
- hit a slump
- hit rock bottom
- hit the skids
- involution
- issue
- languish
- lapse
- lessen
- let up
- lock
- loss of tone
- low
- low tide
- low water
- lower
- lull
- lunar tide
- make
- melt away
- moderate
- molder
- mount
- move
- move away
- move off
- move over
- neap
- neap tide
- opposite tide
- outflow
- outgo
- pacify
- peter out
- plummet
- plunge
- pour
- progress
- pull away
- quiesce
- quiet
- quieten
- reach the depths
- recede
- receding
- refluence
- reflux
- regress
- regression
- regurgitate
- relent
- remission
- retire
- retreat
- retrocede
- retrocession
- retrogradation
- retrograde
- retrogress
- retrogression
- rip
- riptide
- rise
- rotate
- run
- run down
- run low
- rush
- sag
- set
- shallow
- shift
- shrink
- sink
- slacken
- slide
- slip
- slippage
- slowdown
- slump
- soar
- solar tide
- soothe
- spin
- spring tide
- stand
- stand off
- standstill
- stillstand
- stir
- stop
- stream
- subside
- subsidence
- surge
- surge back
- tail off
- thalassometer
- tidal amplitude
- tidal current
- tidal current chart
- tidal flow
- tidal range
- tide
- tide chart
- tide gate
- tide gauge
- tide race
- tide rip
- tidewater
- tideway
- touch bottom
- tranquilize
- travel
- trend
- wane
- waning
- waste
- waste away
- wear
- wear away
- whirl
- widen the distance
- withdraw
qroqqa commented on the word ebb
'I get the impression that all it does is ebb, rather than flow'
—interviewee who thought they were being complimentary about a firm, but who will get out bottoms sued off if I don't swap them round before it goes to print.
July 8, 2009