tide Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun the periodic rise and fall of the sea level under the gravitational pull of the moon
  2. noun something that may increase or decrease (like the tides of the sea)
    • a rising tide of popular interest
  3. noun there are usually two high and two low tides each day
    lunar time period.
  4. verb rise or move forward
    surge.
    • surging waves
  5. verb cause to float with the tide
  6. verb be carried with the tide

WordNet

Tide noun
Etymology
AS. tid time; akin to OS. & OFries. tid, D. tijd, G. zeit, OHG. zit, Icel. ti, Sw. & Dan. tid, and probably to Skr. aditi unlimited, endless, where a- is a negative prefix. *58. Cf. Tidings, Tidy, Till, prep., Time.
Definitions
  1. Time; period; season. Obsoles. "This lusty summer's tide." Chaucer.
    And rest their weary limbs a tide. Spenser.
    Which, at the appointed tide, Each one did make his bride. Spenser.
    At the tide of Christ his birth. Fuller.
  2. The alternate rising and falling of the waters of the ocean, and of bays, rivers, etc., connected therewith. The tide ebbs and flows twice in each lunar day, or the space of a little more than twenty-four hours. It is occasioned by the attraction of the sun and moon (the influence of the latter being three times that of the former), acting unequally on the waters in different parts of the earth, thus disturbing their equilibrium. A high tide upon one side of the earth is accompanied by a high tide upon the opposite side. Hence, when the sun and moon are in conjunction or opposition, as at new moon and full moon, their action is such as to produce a greater than the usual tide, called the spring tide, as represented in the cut. When the moon is in the first or third quarter, the sun's attraction in part counteracts the effect of the moon's attraction, thus producing under the moon a smaller tide than usual, called the neap tide. ✍ The flow or rising of the water is called flood tide, and the reflux, ebb tide.
  3. A stream; current; flood; as, a tide of blood. "Let in the tide of knaves once more; my cook and I'll provide." Shak.
  4. Tendency or direction of causes, influences, or events; course; current.
    There is a tide in the affairs of men, Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune. Shak.
  5. Violent confluence. Obs. Bacon.
  6. (Mining) The period of twelve hours.
Tide transitive verb
Definitions
  1. To cause to float with the tide; to drive or carry with the tide or stream.
    They are tided down the stream. Feltham.
Tide intransitive verb
Etymology
AS. tidan to happen. See Tide, n.
Definitions
  1. To betide; to happen. Obs.
    What should us tide of this new law? Chaucer.
  2. To pour a tide or flood.
  3. (Naut.) To work into or out of a river or harbor by drifting with the tide and anchoring when it becomes adverse.

Webster 1913