TIDE, n.
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This sense is obsolete.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, To drive with the stream.
TIDE, To work in or out of a river or harbor by favor of the tide, and anchor when it becomes adverse.