ebb means low, shallow.
ebb is pronounced /ɛb/.
Why “ebb” is a great word
The receding movement of the tide, flowing back to the sea from its highest point on the shore. Its lineage flows from Middle English *ebbe*, from Old English *ebba* (“ebb, tide”), from Proto-West Germanic *abbjā*, from Proto-Germanic *abjô*, ultimately from the root *ab (“off, away”), carrying the ancient, embedded sense of withdrawal. Unlike “flood,” which surges forward with insistent arrival, or “flow,” which suggests a steady, purposeful current, ebb is the motion of relinquishment. It is the slow, sucking retreat across wet sand, leaving a glistening, ribbed plain; the gradual uncovering of forgotten stones and stranded jellyfish; the quiet, hydraulic sigh as the sea gathers itself to depart. It is the world’s breath held in the pause between ambition and resignation.
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.
adj
- low, shallowe.g.“All the sea lying betweene, is verie ebbe, full of shallowes and shelves”
noun
- The receding movement of the tide.e.g.“The boats will go out on the ebb.”
- A gradual decline.e.g.“Thus all the treasure of our flowing years, / Our ebb of life for ever takes away.”
- A low state; a state of depression.e.g.“Painting was then at its lowest ebb.”
- A European bunting, the corn bunting (Emberiza calandra, syns. Emberiza miliaria, Milaria calandra).
verb
- to flow back or recedee.g.“The tides ebbed at noon.”
- to fall away or declinee.g.“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.e.g.“Parts of this town do not want a big influx of gay people and are trying to ebb it.”
Words closest in meaning
By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.
- waning 83% match — Becoming weaker or smaller. vs ebb →
- riptide 82% match — A particularly strong tidal current. vs ebb →
- tideline 81% match — A line of floating debris, seaweed etc. that marks the boundary between two surface currents. vs ebb →
- depth 81% match — the vertical distance below a surface; the degree to which something is deep vs ebb →
- eagre 81% match — a tidal bore vs ebb →
- tidewrack 81% match — Seaweed and similar marine vegetation and rubbish deposited along a shore by a receding tide. vs ebb →
- shoal 81% match — Shallow. vs ebb →
- surge 81% match — A sudden transient rush, flood or increase. vs ebb →