tide over

British  

verb

1. (tr) to help to get through (a period of difficulty, distress, etc)

   the money tided him over until he got a job

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tide over Idioms  

1. Support through a difficult period, as in I asked my brother for $100 to tide me over until payday. This expression alludes to the way the tide carries something. [Early 1800s]

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

tide over

“Flooding of seawater is likely, around the time of high tide, over vulnerable low-lying coastal areas such as parking lots, beaches, and walkways,” the weather service office in Oxnard said.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 9, 2026

"The saddest part is many of them will suffer the indignity and humiliation, lay low for some time, and wait for this to tide over because they have a life to live."

From BBC ● May 2, 2025

U.S. officials say that accessing the overseas stocks will help tide over the Ukrainians until American ammunition makers can ramp up their production.

From New York Times ● Jan. 17, 2023

In our love story, the thickly buttered bread was a tide over to get us through a rough patch.

From Salon ● Oct. 10, 2022

Horsemen, riding very swiftly, had indeed been sighted: still far behind but gaining on the Orcs, gaining on them like a tide over the flats on folk straying in a quicksand.

From "The Two Towers" by J. R. R. Tolkien