Ebb

Pronunciation

• enPR: Ä•b, IPA: /É›b/
• Rhymes: -É›b

Origin

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.

Full definition of ebb

Noun

1. The receding movement of the tide.The boats will go out on the ebb.
• unknown date ShelleyThou shoreless flood which in thy ebb and flow
  Claspest the limits of morality!
2. A gradual decline.
• unknown date RoscommonThus all the treasure of our flowing years,
  Our ebb of life for ever takes away.
3. A low state; a state of depression.
• unknown date DrydenPainting was then at its lowest ebb.
• 2002, Joyce Carol Oates, The New Yorker, 22 & 29 AprilA "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, .

Derived terms

• ebb and flow
• ebb tide

Antonyms

• flood
• flow

Related terms

• tide

Verb

1. to flow back or recedeThe tides ebbed at noon.
2. to fall away or declineThe 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. (transitive) To cause to flow back.

Synonyms

Adjective

1. low, shallowThe water there is otherwise very low and ebb. (Holland)----