EBB • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Ebb

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

/ɛb/ Listen

noun

Ebb n. (Zoöl.) The European bunting.

Ebb n.

The reflux or flowing back of the tide; the return of the tidal wave toward the sea; opposed to flood; as, the boats will go out on the ebb. "Thou shoreless flood which in thy ebb and flow Claspest the limits of morality!"

The state or time of passing away; a falling from a better to a worse state; low state or condition; decline; decay. "Our ebb of life." "Painting was then at its lowest ebb."

Ebb and flow, the alternate ebb and flood of the tide; often used figuratively. "This alternation between unhealthy activity and depression, this ebb and flow of the industrial."

verb

Ebb v. t. To cause to flow back. (Obs.)

Ebb v. i. (past & past part. ebbed; pres. part. ebbing)

To flow back; to return, as the water of a tide toward the ocean; opposed to flow. "That Power who bids the ocean ebb and flow."

To return or fall back from a better to a worse state; to decline; to decay; to recede. "The hours of life ebb fast."

Synonyms: To recede; retire; withdraw; decay; decrease; wane; sink; lower.

adjective

Ebb adj. Receding; going out; falling; shallow; low. "The water there is otherwise very low and ebb."

See images of 'Ebb'

Etymology of 'Ebb'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

Share |

"Ebb" Quotes from Famous Books

... She awoke at ebb-time, at three of the morning, woke sharply and fully; and sharply and coldly as her father pronouncing sentence on a cruel ...

— Main Street • Sinclair Lewis

... That the wild deluge overtook the haste Even of the hinds that watched it: Men and beasts Were borne above the tops of trees, that grew On the utmost margin of the water-mark. Then, with so swift an ebb the flood drove backward, It slipt from underneath the scaly herd: Here monstrous phocae panted on the shore; Forsaken dolphins there with their broad tails, Lay lashing the departing waves: hard by them, Sea horses floundering in the slimy mud, ...

— All for Love • John Dryden

... this ice-cave with the famous burial-cavern near Ycod, on the northern coast; this would give a tunnel 8 miles long and 11,040 feet high. Many declare that the meltings ebb and flow with the sea-tide, and others recount that lead and lines of many fathoms failed to touch bottom. We are told about the normal dog which fell in and found its way to the shore through the cave of ...

— To the Gold Coast for Gold - A Personal Narrative in Two Volumes.--Vol. I • Richard F. Burton

... the attempt presently, and sat silent, elbows on her thighs, hands propping her chin. Thoughts, vague as the fitful breeze, arose, lingered, and, like the breeze, faded, dissolved into calm, through which, cadenced by the far beat of the ebb tide, her heart echoed, beating ...

— The Fighting Chance • Robert W. Chambers

... the big city, where the unquiet dregs are forever being shaken together, young Murray and the Captain had met and become friends. Both were at the lowest ebb possible to their fortunes; both had fallen from at least an intermediate Heaven of respectability and importance, and both were typical products of the monstrous and peculiar social curriculum of their overweening and bumptious civic ...

— The Trimmed Lamp • O. Henry

More quotes...