Library / English Dictionary

EBB

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

The outward flow of the tide

Synonyms:

ebb; reflux

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Hypernyms ("ebb" is a kind of...):

flow; flowing (the motion characteristic of fluids (liquids or gases))

Holonyms ("ebb" is a part of...):

ebbtide (the tide while water is flowing out)

Derivation:

ebb (flow back or recede)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A gradual decline (in size or strength or power or number)

Synonyms:

ebb; ebbing; wane

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural processes

Hypernyms ("ebb" is a kind of...):

decline; diminution (change toward something smaller or lower)

Derivation:

ebb (fall away or decline)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Fall away or decline

Example:

The patient's strength ebbed away

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Hypernyms (to "ebb" is one way to...):

recede (become faint or more distant)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s

Derivation:

ebb; ebbing (a gradual decline (in size or strength or power or number))

Sense 2

Meaning:

Hem in fish with stakes and nets so as to prevent them from going back into the sea with the ebb

Classified under:

Verbs of fighting, athletic activities

Hypernyms (to "ebb" is one way to...):

beleaguer; besiege; circumvent; hem in; surround (surround so as to force to give up)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sense 3

Meaning:

Flow back or recede

Example:

the tides ebbed at noon

Synonyms:

ebb; ebb away; ebb down; ebb off; ebb out

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Hypernyms (to "ebb" is one way to...):

fall back (move back and away from)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s

Antonym:

tide (rise or move forward)

Derivation:

ebb (the outward flow of the tide)

Credits

 Context examples: 

One day I had come to my studies in lower spirits than usual; the ebb was occasioned by a poignantly felt disappointment.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

These darkish streaks appear to ebb and flow over time.

(NASA Confirms Evidence That Liquid Water Flows on Today's Mars, NASA)

When Juno first arrived at Jupiter in July 2016, its infrared and visible-light cameras discovered giant cyclones encircling the planet's poles - nine in the north and six in the south. Were they, like their Earthly siblings, a transient phenomenon, taking only weeks to develop and then ebb?

(NASA's Juno Navigators Enable Jupiter Cyclone Discovery, NASA)

She had lain back in her chair, with drooping eyelids and bloodless face, so that he had feared at first her journey had weighed heavily upon her, and that the strength was ebbing out of her.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

In the second place, the ebb was now making—a strong rippling current running westward through the basin, and then south'ard and seaward down the straits by which we had entered in the morning.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

In the meantime the weeks were passing, his money was ebbing low, and there was no money coming in.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Ebb tide in appetite to-day. Cannot eat, cannot rest, so diary instead.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

The growl rose in the throat with the culmination of each forward-pushing movement, and ebbed down to start up afresh with the beginning of the next movement.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

But his strength ebbed, his eyes glazed, and he knew nothing when the train was flagged and the two men threw him into the baggage car.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

His changes of mood did not offend me, because I saw that I had nothing to do with their alternation; the ebb and flow depended on causes quite disconnected with me.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)