All 3 Uses of
ebb
in
Utopia, by Thomas More
- Between the town and the sea, and for some miles above the town, it ebbs and flows every six hours with a strong current.†
*ebbs and flows = exhibits a recurring pattern of decrease and increase
- The tide comes up about thirty miles so full that there is nothing but salt water in the river, the fresh water being driven back with its force; and above that, for some miles, the water is brackish; but a little higher, as it runs by the town, it is quite fresh; and when the tide ebbs, it continues fresh all along to the sea.†
ebbs = declines -- typically gradually as with the height of the tide
- They have a particular sagacity, founded upon much observation, in judging of the weather, by which they know when they may look for rain, wind, or other alterations in the air; but as to the philosophy of these things, the cause of the saltness of the sea, of its ebbing and flowing, and of the original and nature both of the heavens and the earth, they dispute of them partly as our ancient philosophers have done, and partly upon some new hypothesis, in which, as they differ from them, so they do not in all things agree among themselves.†
ebbing and flowing = exhibiting a recurring pattern of decrease and increase
Definition:
decline -- typically gradually as with the height of the tide