English
ebb
Pronunciation Noun

ebb (plural ebbs)

  1. The receding movement of the tide.
    The boats will go out on the ebb.
    • Thou shoreless flood which in thy ebb and flow / Claspest the limits of morality!
  2. A gradual decline.
    • Thus all the treasure of our flowing years, / Our ebb of life for ever takes away.
    • , 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.
    • 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, syns. Emberiza miliaria, Milaria calandra).
Antonyms Related terms Translations Translations Verb

ebb (ebbs, present participle ebbing; 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.
Synonyms

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

Translations Adjective

ebb (comparative ebber, superlative ebbest)

  1. low, shallow
    • The water there is otherwise very low and ebb.


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