ebb

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“
There are ebbs and flows and our ebb was at the very beginning.

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Definitions (23)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (4)

  1. noun Ebb tide.
  2. noun A period of decline or diminution: "Insistence upon rules of conduct marks the ebb of religious fervor” (Alfred North Whitehead).
  3. intransitive verb To fall back from the flood stage.
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Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (9)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (5)

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Examples (50)

  • We had kept with her as far as we dared, and then hove-to about two cables' lengths to windward of her, when she struck, for the ebb was still running strong under our lee, which only made the sea more cross and heavy. —  Poor Jack
  • It is now half-ebb, and if you wish to be introduced to vultures and jackals, I can show you plenty. —  The King's Own
  • We have not a quarter of an hour's more ebb, and the wind is heading us Tom and I went forward, brailed up the mainsail, cleared away, and let go the anchor. —  Jacob Faithful
  • He took charge of the University when its fortunes were at a low ebb, and the future was not bright. —  The University of Michigan
  • I tempted my sisters to go and bathe where the shore shelved rapidly and the ebb washed back strongly. —  Parkhurst Boys And Other Stories of School Life
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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

eddy ·  alternation ·  patter ·  reiteration ·  throb ·  attrition ·  tide ·  trickle ·  cadence ·  strive ·  vicissitude ·  surge

Used in the same contextWord Family

ebb:   ebbed ·  ebbing ·  ebbs
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English ebbe, from Old English ebba; see apo- in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. Early modern English ebbe; from Middle English ebbe, from Anglo-Saxon ebba = Dutch eb, ebbe = OFries. ebba = Low German ebbe (later G. ebbe) = Swedish ebb = Danish ebbe, ebb. Prob. related to Gothic (Moesogothic) ibuks, backward, and perhaps to Gothic (Moesogothic) ibns = Anglo-Saxon efen, English even, q. v.
  2. from Middle English ebben, from Anglo-Saxon ebbian = Dutch ebben = Middle Low German Low German ebben (later Middle High German eppen, German ebben) = Swedish ebba = Danish ebbe, ebb: see the noun.
 

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/ɛb/
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