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tide

nounverbverbcommon in dialogue

  • United Kingdom//tɑjd//
  • United States//taɪd//
  • Australia/[tɑed]/
  • Scotland//tʌɪd//
  • /[tʰaːd]/

The daily fluctuation in the level of the sea caused by the gravitational influence of the moon and the sun.

noun

  1. 1

    The daily fluctuation in the level of the sea caused by the gravitational influence of the moon and the sun.

    The Bristol Channel has some of the world's largest tides.

  2. 2

    The associated flow of water.

    A lot of driftwood was brought in on the tide.

  3. 3

    Any similar gravitational effect on Earth or other body.

    As well as sea tides, there are much smaller land tides.

    By far the largest tides on Europa are those caused by the gravitational attraction of Jupiter.

  4. 4

    A high-volume flow, literal or figurative; a current or flood.

    The sewer burst, and a tide of sewage poured into nearby properties.

    A tide of people crossed over the border.

    We've encountered a tide of problems.

    Go I charge thee, inuite them all, let in the tide / Of Knaues once more: my Cook and Ile provide.

  5. 5

    figurativeThe tendency or direction of causes, influences, or events; course; current.

    The tide of public opinion has turned.

    There is a tide in the affairs of men, / Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune […]

    This is the crap our children are learning / But oh, oh, oh, the tide is turning

    Can't you see that the tide is turning

  6. 6

    obsoleteTime, notably anniversary, period or season linked to an ecclesiastical feast.

    [...] and rest their weary limbs a tide.

    Which, at th'appointed tyde, / Each one did make his Bryde

    at the tide / Of Christ his birth

    What is singular too, the spademen seem to work lazily; they will not work double-tides, even for offer of more wages, though their tide is but seven hours[.]

  7. 7

    archaicA time.

    The doctor's no good this tide.

  8. 8

    archaicA point or period of time identified or described by a qualifier.

    Eventide, noontide, morrowtide, nighttide, moontide, harvesttide, wintertide, summertide, springtide, autumntide etc.

  9. 9

    The period of twelve hours.

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *deh₂- Proto-Indo-European *deh₂y- Proto-Indo-European *-tis Proto-Indo-European *déh₂itis Proto-Germanic *tīdiz Proto-West Germanic *tīdi Old English tīd Middle English tyde English tide Inherited from Middle English tyde, from Old English tīd, from Proto-West Germanic *tīdi, from Proto-Germanic *tīdiz, from Proto-Indo-European *déh₂itis, from *deh₂y- + *-tis. Related to time. Cognate with Dutch tijd (“time”), German Zeit (“time”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish tid (“time”), Faroese and Icelandic tíð (“time”).

verb

  1. 1

    To cause to float with the tide; to drive or carry with the tide or stream.

    They are tided down the stream.

  2. 2

    To carry over or through a problem or difficulty.

  3. 3

    rareTo pour a tide or flood.

    The ocean tided most impressively.

  4. 4

    To work into or out of a river or harbor by drifting with the tide and anchoring when it becomes adverse.

verb

  1. 1

    obsoleteTo happen, occur.

    I wit not what may tide us here

Etymology

From Middle English tiden, tide, from Old English tīdan (“to happen”).

Forms

plural
tides
past tense
tided
past participle
tided
present participle
tiding
third person singular
tides

tide · The daily fluctuation in the level of the sea caused by the gravitational influence of the moon and the sun.

tidy · Arranged neatly and in order.Tidy · A surname.tie · A knot; a fastening.
The neighbouring pagesAlphabetical order follows the rules of the language, not byte values: an accent decides only between two otherwise identical words, and Spanish files Ñ as a letter of its own.

Lexical content from Wiktionary, under CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source entry · Data version 2026-08-23

Rank among the words of the OpenSubtitles 2018 corpus — film and television subtitles, so spoken rather than written usage (CC BY-SA 3.0).