different between ebb vs plonge

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

Etymology

See plunge.

Verb

plonge (third-person singular simple present plonges, present participle plonging, simple past and past participle plonged)

1. (transitive) To cleanse, as open drains which are entered by the tide, by stirring up the sediment when the tide ebbs.

Anagrams

• OpenGL

French

Noun

plonge f (plural plonges)

1. (France, informal) the work of washing dishes

Derived terms

• faire la plonge

Verb

plonge

1. first-person singular present indicative of plonger
2. third-person singular present indicative of plonger
3. first-person singular present subjunctive of plonger
4. third-person singular present subjunctive of plonger
5. second-person singular imperative of plonger

Further reading

• “plonge” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).