ebb

From Middle English ebbe, from Old English ebba (“ebb, tide”), from Proto-Germanic *abjô, *abjǭ (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.

• enPR: ĕb, IPA^(key): /ɛb/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛb

ebb (plural ebbs)

1. The receding movement of the tide.

   The boats will go out on the ebb.

   • (Can we date this quote?) Shelley

     Thou shoreless flood which in thy ebb and flow / Claspest the limits of morality!

2. A gradual decline.
   • (Can we date this quote?) Roscommon

     Thus all the treasure of our flowing years, / Our ebb of life for ever takes away.

   • Shelley, Mary, The Last Man

     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.

3. A low state; a state of depression.
   • (Can we date this quote?) Dryden

     Painting was then at its lowest ebb.

   • 2002, Joyce Carol Oates, The New Yorker, 22 & 29 April

     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.

4. A European bunting, the corn bunting (Emberiza calandra, syn. Emberiza miliaria, Milaria calandra).

• flood
• flow

• ebb and flow
• ebb tide

• neap
• tide

ebb (third-person singular simple present ebbs, present participle ebbing, simple past and past participle ebbed)

1. (intransitive) to flow back or recede

   The tides ebbed at noon.

2. (intransitive) to fall away or decline

   The dying man's strength ebbed away.

3. (intransitive) to fish with stakes and nets that serve to prevent the fish from getting back into the sea with the ebb
4. (transitive) To cause to flow back.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Ford to this entry?)

ebb away, ebb down, ebb off, ebb out, reflux, wane

ebb (comparative ebber, superlative ebbest)

1. low, shallow
   • (Can we date this quote?) Holland

     The water there is otherwise very low and ebb.

• BBE

ebb c

1. ebb; low tide

   Antonyms: flod, högvatten

   Synonym: lågvatten