Definition of "ebb"

ebb

/ɛb/

noun
plural ebbs
1. The receding movement of the tide.
  Quotations
  Thou shoreless flood which in thy ebb and flow / Claspest the limits of morality!
  1824, Mary Shelley, Time
  Men come from distant parts to admire the tides of Solway, which race in at flood and retreat at ebb with a greater speed than a horse can follow.
  1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide
2. A gradual decline.
  Quotations
  Thus all the treasure of our flowing years, / Our ebb of life for ever takes away.
  1684, Wentworth Dillon, 4th Earl of Roscommon, Essay on Translated Verse
  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.
  1826, [Mary Shelley], The Last Man. […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Henry Colburn, […]
  Industrialism hasn’t been an abiding set of activities in any particular place but rather a dynamic cycle, of takeoff, peak, and ebb.
  2012, James Howard Kunstler, Too Much Magic, page 74
3. (especially in the phrase 'at a low ebb') A low state; a state of depression.
  Quotations
  Painting was then at its lowest ebb.
  1695, C[harles] A[lphonse] du Fresnoy, translated by John Dryden, De Arte Graphica. The Art of Painting, […], London: […] J[ohn] Heptinstall for W. Rogers, […]
  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.
  2002, Joyce Carol Oates, The New Yorker, 22 & 29 April
  The 1987 book British Piers was written at a time when Britain's seaside resorts were perhaps at their lowest ebb, with a groundswell of support for rejuvenation and conservation just beginning.
  2020 July 29, Dr Joseph Brennan, “Railways that reach out over the waves”, in Rail, page 51
4. A European bunting, the corn bunting (Emberiza calandra, syns. Emberiza miliaria, Milaria calandra).
verb
third-person singular simple present ebbs, present participle ebbing, simple past and past participle ebbed
1. (intransitive) to flow back or recede
2. (intransitive) to fall away or decline
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.
adjective
comparative ebber, superlative ebbest
1. low, shallow
  Quotations
  All the sea lying betweene, is verie ebbe, full of shallowes and shelves
  1601, C[aius] Plinius Secundus [i.e., Pliny the Elder], “(please specify |book=I to XXXVII)”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Historie of the World. Commonly Called, The Naturall Historie of C. Plinius Secundus. […], (please specify |tome=1 or 2), London: […] Adam Islip, published 1635

Definition of "ebb"

ebb

noun

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

verb

adjective

Quotations