neap tide

noun

either of the two tides that occur at the first or last quarter of the moon when the tide-generating forces of the sun and moon oppose each other and produce the smallest rise and fall in tidal level: Compare spring tide (def. 1)

Words Nearby neap tide

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

How to use neap tide in a sentence

But when there has been a neap-tide in his temper for any time, you're sure to find it followed by a flood with a vengeance.
The Pilot | J. Fenimore Cooper
Now, the fisherman walked just about the neap-tide, high-water mark, sometimes above it and sometimes below.
John Thorndyke's Cases | R. Austin Freeman
When the two conspire, they cause a spring tide; when the solar and lunar tides are opposed, we have the neap tide.
The Story of the Heavens | Robert Stawell Ball
But they might as well have bidden the Neap-tide turn before its Hour.
The Household of Sir Thomas More | Anne Manning
It was neap-tide, too, and therefore nothing could be done among the rocks.
Glaucus | Charles Kingsley

Scientific definitions for neap tide

neap tide

[ nēp ]

A tide in which the difference between high and low tide is the least. Neap tides occur twice a month when the Sun and Moon are at right angles to the Earth. When this is the case, their total gravitational pull on the Earth's water is weakened because it comes from two different directions. Compare spring tide. See more at tide.

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