ebb

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!

A gradual decline.

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

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.

A low state; a state of depression.

Painting was then at its lowest ebb.

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.

A European bunting, the corn bunting (Emberiza calandra, syns. Emberiza miliaria, Milaria calandra).

low, shallow

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

to flow back or recede

The tides ebbed at noon.

to fall away or decline

The dying man's strength ebbed away.

to fish with stakes and nets that serve to prevent the fish from getting back into the sea with the ebb

To cause to flow back.

Parts of this town do not want a big influx of gay people and are trying to ebb it.