Ebb
adj, noun, verb ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 The receding movement of the tide.
"The boats will go out on the ebb."
- 2 the outward flow of the tide wordnet
- 3 A gradual decline.
"Thus all the treasure of our flowing years, / Our ebb of life for ever takes away."
- 4 a gradual decline (in size or strength or power or number) wordnet
- 5 A low state; a state of depression. especially
"Painting was then at its lowest ebb."
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- 6 A European bunting, the corn bunting (Emberiza calandra, syns. Emberiza miliaria, Milaria calandra).
- 1 to flow back or recede intransitive
"The tides ebbed at noon."
- 2 fall away or decline wordnet
- 3 to fall away or decline intransitive
"The dying man's strength ebbed away."
- 4 hem in fish with stakes and nets so as to prevent them from going back into the sea with the ebb wordnet
- 5 to fish with stakes and nets that serve to prevent the fish from getting back into the sea with the ebb intransitive
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- 6 flow back or recede wordnet
- 7 To cause to flow back. transitive
"Parts of this town do not want a big influx of gay people and are trying to ebb it."
- 1 low, shallow
"All the sea lying betweene, is verie ebbe, full of shallowes and shelves"
Antonyms
All antonymsExample
More examples"Relations between us seem to be on the ebb."
Etymology
From Middle English ebbe, from Old English ebba (“ebb, tide”), from Proto-West Germanic *abbjā, from Proto-Germanic *abjô, *abjǭ, from Proto-Germanic *ab (“off, away”), from Proto-Indo-European *apó. See also West Frisian ebbe, Dutch eb, German Ebbe, Danish ebbe, Old Norse efja (“countercurrent”), Old English af. More at of, off.
From Middle English ebben, from Old English ebbian, from Proto-West Germanic *abbjōn (“to ebb”).
Related phrases
More for "ebb"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.