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ebb

/eb/·verb, noun

(of the tide) to flow back out to sea; to grow gradually weaker; (noun) the outgoing tide
Fig. 1 — The sea is leaving the beach the long way — not sinking, walking.
01Definition

To ebb is to flow back out: twice a day the tide turns and the sea withdraws from the shore, and that outgoing phase is the ebb. The word's whole character comes from the cycle it belongs to — ebb and flow — so when strength, enthusiasm or courage ebbs away, the draining feels tidal: gradual, quiet, and half-expected to return. At a low ebb means at the weakest point of that cycle. Old English ebba — one of the sea words the language has kept for a thousand years.

02In use
  • iBy evening the tide had begun to ebb, and the boats leaned over on the mud.
  • iiHis confidence ebbed away with every unanswered application.
  • iiiSupport for the policy ebbed as the true costs became clear.
03Collocations
  • ebb and flow
  • ebb away
  • at a low ebb
  • the tide ebbs
  • strength ebbs

Family ebb (noun) · ebbing (adjective)

04Relations

=recede, wane, subside, dwindle, fade

≠flow, surge, rise

06TOEFL & IELTS

The set phrase is the exam value: the ebb and flow of demand, of migration, of public attention — a ready frame for any cyclical Task 1 line, one register above 'fluctuate'. At a low ebb marks the weak point of the cycle (morale was at a low ebb). The figurative verb almost always drains — strength, courage and support ebb away. And unlike a plain fall, an ebb belongs to a rhythm: the flow half of the phrase is always implied, which is exactly what the returning tide in the scene plays out.

07Asked
What does 'ebb and flow' mean?
Rhythmic alternation — the regular rise and fall of anything: the ebb and flow of demand, of conversation, of a season's fortunes. The idiom has run on tide-power since the 1500s, and its promise is the cycle itself: whatever is ebbing now is expected to flow again. That makes it a description of rhythm, never of decline.
What does 'at a low ebb' mean?
At the weakest point of a cycle — the tide's lowest water carried over to people and institutions: morale at a low ebb, relations between the countries at a low ebb, his fortunes at their lowest ebb. The phrase quietly promises the same thing the tide does — that this is a phase, with a turn built in.
Is an ebb tide high tide or low tide?
Neither — it is the movement between them: the falling phase, while the water is on its way out. The rising phase is the flood tide, and the still moments at top and bottom are slack water. The first half of the scene above happens entirely inside the ebb: the waterline walks back down the beach not at a moment, but across the whole outgoing phase.
What is a flood tide?
The ebb's opposite number: the incoming phase, when the sea is returning and the level climbs. Tide tables carve the day into flood and ebb around two highs and two lows, roughly six hours a phase in most places. The pairing matters for the idiom too — a flood tide of support is abundance arriving, where an ebb is departure.
Is it 'ebb and flow' or 'ebbs and flows'?
Both are correct, differently built. Ebb and flow is the set phrase, usually a singular noun ('the ebb and flow of trade'). Ebbs and flows works two ways: plural noun ('the market's ebbs and flows') or paired verbs ('enthusiasm ebbs and flows'). Only keep the halves in that order — flow and ebb sounds distinctly off.
If strength 'ebbs away', does it come back?
The phrase does not expect it to — that is exactly what the particle adds. Bare ebb belongs to a cycle and half-promises a return; ebb away drains without one: strength ebbs away, confidence ebbs away, support ebbed away over the campaign's final weeks, and in fiction life ebbs away. The particle takes the tide out of the cycle — what ebbs away is simply going, one quiet degree at a time.