spring tide, spring-tide
[spring n.1]
1. The season of spring; spring-time.
| 1530 Palsgr. 306/1 Belongyng to the springe tyde, vernal. 1576 Fleming Panopl. Epist. 352 What man is able to affirme, that he euer sawe the Spring tide without Marche Uiolettes? 1601 R. Johnson Kingd. & Commw. (1603) 13 It hapneth very often that the northren or western winde..bringeth springtide before the winter season be fully expired. 1632 Lithgow Trav. iii. 85 There is no land more temperate for ayre, for it hath a double spring-tyde. 1795 Gent. Mag. July 539 The animalculæ that in spring-tide often almost obscure the sun itself. 1864 Skeat tr. Uhland's Poems 251 Spring-tide reigns o'er stream and field. 1870 Lowell Study Wind. 228 A breath of uncontaminate springtide seems to lift the hair upon my forehead. |
b. fig. and transf.
| 1596 Spenser Astrophel Epit. ii. 10 His life was my spring tide. 1602 W. Fulbecke Pandects Ded. p. i, Which in one and this very springtide haue in my selfe knowne the force of seasons. 1640 T. Carew Poems, To my Cousin 2 Happy youth, that shalt possesse Such a spring-tyde of delight. 1879 Geo. Eliot Theo. Such xiv. 249 He is no longer in his spring⁓tide. 1879 M. Collins Pen Sketches I. 213 The spring-tide of her youth. |
2. A tide occurring on the days shortly after the new and full moon, in which the high-water level reaches its maximum.
Cf. Du. and WFris. springtij, NFris. -tidj, G. -(ge)zeit. In quots. 1689 and 1724 the reference is to the corresponding lowness of the ebb.
| a 1548 Hall Chron., Hen. VIII, 209 b, At whiche season was suche a spryng tide, that it brake the walles of Hollande and Zelande. 1573 Tusser Husb. (1878) 60 At full and at change, spring tides are strange. 1634–5 Brereton Trav. (Chetham Soc.) 97 Here is an haven..whereinto at a spring⁓tide a ship of 100 ton may enter. 1689 Lond. Gaz. No. 2478/1 Whither he would march the next Spring-Tide, the Strand..not being fordable for Foot till that time. 1724 in Picton L'pool Munic. Rec. (1886) II. 52 Which stones..are adry only on spring tydes. 1776 Dalrymple Ann. Scotl. I. 138 A sudden land-flood, met by a spring-tide, surrounded and overwhelmed the town. 1839 Stonehouse Isle of Axholme 49 The spring tides run at the rate of nine miles an hour. 1879 Froude Cæsar xvi. 265 When the full moon brought the spring tide. |
b. fig. and in fig. context.
| c 1620 Z. Boyd Zion's Flowers (1855) 42 In a Spring tide Sin doth overflowe. 1679 J. Goodman Penit. Pard. ii. iv. (1713) 222 They [new converts] find they cannot maintain those spring-tides constantly at the same height. 1778 Johnson Lett. (1892) II. 72 You appear to me to be now floating on the springtide of prosperity; on a tide not governed by the moon. 1809 Scott Let. in Lockhart (1837) II. vii. 253 The spring-tide may for ought I know, break in this next session of Parliament. 1853 R. S. Surtees Sponge's Sp. Tour xxxi. 188 He once did us the honour..of walking down Bond-street with us, in the spring-tide of fashion. 1890 Spectator 29 Mar., It should convince them that there is no spring tide flowing strongly towards Home-rule. |
3. transf. A copious flow or large quantity of something.
| 1593 Nashe Christ's T. Wks. (Grosart) IV. 79 Heere ebbe the spring-tide of my Teares. 1645 Quarles Sol. Recant. vi. 71 If spring tides of Gold should a degree Transcend thy wish, perchance it would want thee. 1660 Secker Nonsuch Prof. Pref. 7 In the highest flood and spring-tides of outward mercies, its hard to keep our hearts within the channell. a 1704 T. Brown Dial. Dead Wks. 1711 IV. 27 What of late Years brings daily such Gluts and Spring-Tides of Souls to our Infernal Mansions. 1753 H. Walpole Lett. (1846) II. 472 This has been quite a spring-tide of diversion. 1808 Scott Marm. i. Introd. 217 Woe, wonder, and sensation high, In one spring-tide of ecstasy! 1887 Knox Little Broken Vow 163 To check the springtide of my girlish joy. |
4. attrib. and Comb., as spring-tide flood, spring tide joy, etc.
| 1662 H. Hibbert Body Divinity ii. 32 An ebullition or a spring-tide-like overflow. 1748 Thomson Cast. Indol. i. lxiii, When spring-tide joy pours in with copious flood, The higher still th' exulting billows flow. 1785 Burns Ep. W. Simpson xi, At Wallace' name, what Scottish blood, But boils up in a spring-tide flood. 1808 Scott Marm. iii. viii, No thrush Sings livelier from a spring-tide bush. 1819 Keats Eve of St. Mark 10 The chilly sunset faintly told..Of rivers new with spring-tide sedge. 1866 S. B. James Duty & Doctrine (1871) 62 That Heavenly spring-tide radiance which can never fade away. |