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

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

From Time Magazine Archive

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

From Time Magazine Archive

Vessels drawing 20 ft. can enter the new docks at neap tide.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 8, Slice 4 "Diameter" to "Dinarchus" by Various

Unfortunately, the day proved very rough; and it was little better than a neap tide.

From Men of Invention and Industry by Smiles, Samuel

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