TID'DLE

TIDE, noun

1. Time; season.

Which, at the appointed tide,

Each one did make his bride.

[This sense is obsolete.]

2. The flow of the water in the ocean and seas, twice in a little more than twenty four hours; the flux and reflux, or ebb and flow. We commonly distinguish the flow or rising of the water by the name of flood-tide, and the reflux by that of ebb-tide. There is much less tide or rise of water in the main ocean, at a distance from land, than there is at the shore, and in sounds and bays.

3. Stream; course; current; as the tide of the times.

Time's ungentle tide.

4. Favorable course.

There is a tide in the affairs of men,

Which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune.

5. Violent confluence. [Not in use.]

6. Among miners, the period of twelve hours.

7. Current; flow of blood.

And life's red tide runs ebbing from the wound.

TIDE, verb transitive To drive with the stream.

TIDE, verb intransitive To work in or out of a river or harbor by favor of the tide, and anchor when it becomes adverse.