neap tide

American  

[neep tahyd] / ˈnip ˌtaɪd /

noun

1. Oceanography. the smallest rise and fall of the tide at or near the first-quarter and third-quarter phases of the moon. Compare spring tide.

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neap tide British  

noun

1. 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

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neap tide Scientific  

/ nēp /

1. 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.

2. Compare spring tide See more at tide

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Example Sentences

Last week's was not only ebb but neap tide.

From Time Magazine Archive

There was a neap tide, and the current was near slack.

From Time Magazine Archive

Well, I will here insert an escaped danger that tells its own tale in a sonnet written at the time, the place being Tenby and the sea-anemone caverns there, accessible only at lowest neap tide.

From My Life as an Author by Tupper, Martin Farquhar

Swift marching and quick manuvres of the type which gave war some of its old sport and zest; the advance all the while gathering force like the neap tide!

From My Year of the War Including an Account of Experiences with the Troops in France and the Record of a Visit to the Grand Fleet Which is Here Given for the First Time in its Complete Form by Palmer, Frederick

But when I made this observation it was neap tide.

From A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 06 Arranged in Systematic Order: Forming a Complete History of the Origin and Progress of Navigation, Discovery, and Commerce, by Sea and Land, from the Earliest Ages to the Present Time by Kerr, Robert