different between ebb vs neap

English

Etymology

From Middle English ebbe, from Old English ebba (“ebb, tide”), from Proto-Germanic *abjô, *abj? (compare West Frisian ebbe, Dutch eb, German Ebbe, Old Norse efja (“countercurrent”)), from Proto-Germanic *ab (“off, away”), from Proto-Indo-European *apó. (compare Old English af). More at of, off.

Pronunciation

• enPR: ?b, IPA^(key): /?b/
• Rhymes: -?b

Noun

ebb (plural ebbs)

1. The receding movement of the tide.
   • 1824, Mary Shelley, Time

     Thou shoreless flood which in thy ebb and flow / Claspest the limits of morality!

2. A gradual decline.
   • 1684, Wentworth Dillon, 4th Earl of Roscommon, Essay on Translated Verse

     Thus all the treasure of our flowing years, / Our ebb of life for ever takes away.

   • 1826, Mary Shelley, 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. (especially in the phrase 'at a low ebb') A low state; a state of depression.
   • 1695, John Dryden (translator), Observations on the Art of Painting by Charles Alphonse du Fresnoy

     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

• flood
• flow

Derived terms

• ebb and flow
• ebb tide

Related terms

• neap
• tide

Translations

Verb

ebb (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.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Ford to this entry?)

Synonyms

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

Translations

Adjective

ebb (comparative ebber, superlative ebbest)

1. low, shallow

   • All the sea lying betweene, is verie ebbe, full of shallowes and shelves

Anagrams

• BBE

Swedish

Noun

ebb c

1. ebb; low tide

   Antonyms: flod, högvatten

   Synonym: lågvatten

Declension

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: n?p, IPA^(key): /ni?p/
• Rhymes: -i?p

Etymology 1

Perhaps of Scandinavian origin: compare dialectal Norwegian neip (“forked pole”).

Noun

neap (plural neaps)

1. The tongue or pole of a cart or other vehicle drawn by two animals.

Etymology 2

From Middle English neep, from Old English n?p (“scant, lacking”), possibly from Proto-Germanic *n?piz (“narrow”). Found especially in Old English n?pfl?d (“neap tide”, literally “low tide”). Compare Norwegian dialectal nøpen (“scarce, scant, barely enough”).

Adjective

neap (not comparable)

1. (of a tide) Low; lowest; the ebb or lowest point of a tide.
2. Designating a tide which occurs just after the first and third quarters of the moon, when there is the least difference between high tide and low tide.

Translations

Verb

neap (third-person singular simple present neaps, present participle neaping, simple past and past participle neaped)

1. To trap a ship (or ship and crew) in water too shallow to move, due to the smaller tidal range occurring in a period of neap tides.
2. to ooze, to sink, to subside, to tail
   

Noun

neap (plural neaps)

1. A neap tide.

Etymology 3

Noun

neap (plural neaps)

1. Alternative form of neep

References

Anagrams

• -pnea, NAPE, Pena, nape, pane, pané, pean