What's the difference between ebb and swell?

Ebb


Definition:

  • (n.) The European bunting.
  • (n.) The reflux or flowing back of the tide; the return of the tidal wave toward the sea; -- opposed to flood; as, the boats will go out on the ebb.
  • (n.) The state or time of passing away; a falling from a better to a worse state; low state or condition; decline; decay.
  • (v. i.) To flow back; to return, as the water of a tide toward the ocean; -- opposed to flow.
  • (v. i.) To return or fall back from a better to a worse state; to decline; to decay; to recede.
  • (v. t.) To cause to flow back.
  • (a.) Receding; going out; falling; shallow; low.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) In such circumstances faith in the project inevitably ebbs among the faithful.
  • (2) Hytner announced a new initiative to help two regional theatres with fundraising – an increasing source of income in the arts as public money ebbs.
  • (3) "I don't know why," he says, but it's something that didn't even happen at his lowest ebb: amid the bleakness of the early 70s, he somehow kept sporadically producing incredible songs: Til I Die, This Whole World, Sail On Sailor… There's always touring, however.
  • (4) It exacerbates an environment of disaffection and disempowerment and does nothing but isolate the very community that best understands these challenges.” Race relations have reached a low ebb following the release of the government’s anti-terrorism laws, which many Muslims say have dredged up Islamophobia in the community by equating terrorism with Islam.
  • (5) CaM-independent basal Ca2+-Mg2+-ATPase, Na+-K+-ATPase and Mg2+-ATPase were not effect at 1.0 microM of EBB at which CaM-dependent Ca2+-Mg2+-ATPase was already potently inhibited.
  • (6) This finding may have particular meaning in the very young animal when natural antibodies are at ebb: cellular defense mechanisms may function less efficiently at this time and effect a greater reliance on humoral antibacterial systems.
  • (7) Loyalist communities in particular are at their very lowest ebb socially, politically and economically.
  • (8) We needed to basically build an organisation that was part of the ebb and flow of the internet,” he said.
  • (9) He said the prime minister had broken a pre-election promise not to have any "top-down re-organisation of the NHS" and told him: "Every day he fights for this bill, every day trust in him on the NHS ebbs away, every day it becomes clearer the NHS is not safe in his hands."
  • (10) On the other hand, the Brahms Third Symphony that he brought to London with his orchestra in 1998 still revealed a masterly control of ebb and flow in a work which Abbado had always regarded as one of the most difficult to conduct from the technical point of view.
  • (11) Total coronary resistance (TCR) increasing effect of Ni ions was significantly augmented during the first 2-3 hours after burn and bleeding (ebb phase).
  • (12) When glucagon was administered to the rats in the ebb phase, RME increased significantly.
  • (13) In his mid-80s, in his conservatory at home in Essex, he summarised the order of his interests as "travelling, writing and growing lilies"; he travelled before he turned writer, beginning in the relatively incorruptible Spain of the early 1930s, and going on for more than 60 years to observe the ebb and flow of governments, the dissolution of indigenous tribal cultures and the activities of missionaries, bandits, profiteers and political scene-shifters.
  • (14) Yet it will almost certainly ebb again, as policymakers and publics react, security services adapt and the militants suffer attrition of every sort.
  • (15) Interest in mental deficiency was at low ebb in the 19th century.
  • (16) Returning to the musical theatre after Company, he provided the book for the John Kander-Fred Ebb musical The Act (1977) which served as an excellent vehicle for the singing, dancing and acting talents of Liza Minnelli.
  • (17) There was an ebb and flow to the tie, with Moussa Sissoko in barrelling form.
  • (18) The battle between countervailing factions in the Trump White House continues to ebb and flow, but the president’s reflexes in times of adversity lead him to fall back on the “America First” narrative that got him elected in the first place.
  • (19) Nightwork not only taps into the "low ebb" of certain circadian performance rhythms, it also involves sleep disruption, social and domestic disruption, and the chronic equivalent of jet lag, all of which can radically affect performance and safety.
  • (20) The action of HIP2 and APT4 could be obviously inhibited by the calmodulin inhibitor EBB.

Swell


Definition:

  • (v. i.) To grow larger; to dilate or extend the exterior surface or dimensions, by matter added within, or by expansion of the inclosed substance; as, the legs swell in dropsy; a bruised part swells; a bladder swells by inflation.
  • (v. i.) To increase in size or extent by any addition; to increase in volume or force; as, a river swells, and overflows its banks; sounds swell or diminish.
  • (v. i.) To rise or be driven into waves or billows; to heave; as, in tempest, the ocean swells into waves.
  • (v. i.) To be puffed up or bloated; as, to swell with pride.
  • (v. i.) To be inflated; to belly; as, the sails swell.
  • (v. i.) To be turgid, bombastic, or extravagant; as, swelling words; a swelling style.
  • (v. i.) To protuberate; to bulge out; as, a cask swells in the middle.
  • (v. i.) To be elated; to rise arrogantly.
  • (v. i.) To grow upon the view; to become larger; to expand.
  • (v. i.) To become larger in amount; as, many little debts added, swell to a great amount.
  • (v. i.) To act in a pompous, ostentatious, or arrogant manner; to strut; to look big.
  • (v. t.) To increase the size, bulk, or dimensions of; to cause to rise, dilate, or increase; as, rains and dissolving snow swell the rivers in spring; immigration swells the population.
  • (v. t.) To aggravate; to heighten.
  • (v. t.) To raise to arrogance; to puff up; to inflate; as, to be swelled with pride or haughtiness.
  • (v. t.) To augment gradually in force or loudness, as the sound of a note.
  • (n.) The act of swelling.
  • (n.) Gradual increase.
  • (n.) Increase or augmentation in bulk; protuberance.
  • (n.) Increase in height; elevation; rise.
  • (n.) Increase of force, intensity, or volume of sound.
  • (n.) Increase of power in style, or of rhetorical force.
  • (n.) A gradual ascent, or rounded elevation, of land; as, an extensive plain abounding with little swells.
  • (n.) A wave, or billow; especially, a succession of large waves; the roll of the sea after a storm; as, a heavy swell sets into the harbor.
  • (n.) A gradual increase and decrease of the volume of sound; the crescendo and diminuendo combined; -- generally indicated by the sign.
  • (n.) A showy, dashing person; a dandy.
  • (a.) Having the characteristics of a person of rank and importance; showy; dandified; distinguished; as, a swell person; a swell neighborhood.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Furthermore echography revealed a collateral subperiosteal edema and a moderate thickening of extraocular muscles and bone periostitis, a massive swelling of muscles and bone defects in subperiosteal abscesses as well as encapsulated abscesses of the orbit and a concomitant retrobulbar neuritis in orbital cellulitis.
  • (2) Undaunted by the sickening swell of the ocean and wrapped up against the chilly wind, Straneo, of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, one of the world's leading oceanographic research centres, continues to take measurements from the waters as the long Arctic dusk falls.
  • (3) Axons emerge from proximal dendrites within 50 microns of the soma, and more rarely from the soma, in a tapering initial segment, commonly interrupted by one or two large swellings.
  • (4) It is a specific clinical picture with extensive soft tissue gas and swelling of the forearm.
  • (5) Psychiatric morbidity is further increased when adjuvant chemotherapy is used and when treatment results in persistent arm pain and swelling.
  • (6) Chromatolysis and swelling of the cell bodies of cut axons are more prolonged than after optic nerve section and resolve in more central regions of retina first.
  • (7) At 7 days axonal swellings were infrequently observed and the main structural feature was a reduction in myelin thickness in affected nerve fibers.
  • (8) In the companion paper, we quantitatively account for the observation that the ability of a solute to promote fusion depends on its permeability properties and the method of swelling.
  • (9) Admission venom levels also correlated with the extent of local swelling and the occurrence of tissue necrosis at the site of the bite.
  • (10) After 40 minutes of coronary occlusion and 20 minutes of reflow, significant cardiac weight gain occurred in association with characteristic alterations in the ischemic region, including widespread interstitial edema and focal vascular congestion and hemorrhage and swelling of cardiac muscle cells.
  • (11) The intensity of involvement varies in different arteries, localized swelling is of particular importance as a measure of atherosclerotic involvement.
  • (12) The DTH responses were induced by subcutaneous injection of allogeneic epidermal cells (ECs) and were assayed by footpad swelling.
  • (13) Adjunctive usage of elastic stockings and intermittent compression pneumatic boots in the perioperative period was helpful in controlling leg swelling and promoting wound healing.
  • (14) (1970) Endocrinology 87, 993--999), in stimulating both mitochondrial protein synthesis and swelling.
  • (15) Rapid swelling of the knee following a blow or twisting injury is considered a significant injury.
  • (16) Attachment appeared to involve a very close physical proximity of treponemes to the cultured cells; at the site of attachment, no changes such as swelling or indentation of the cultured cell surface were observed.
  • (17) The method is based upon osmotic swelling, sonication and centrifugation in sucrose.
  • (18) By contrast, all the semen samples that fertilized oocytes showed a 60% or higher reaction in the hypoosmotic swelling test, whereas the majority of the "infertile" semen samples showed less than 60% swelling.
  • (19) The changes included swelling, blunting, and flattening of epithelial foot processes, were accompanied by decreased stainability of glomerular anionic sites, and were largely reversed by subsequent perfusion with the polyanion heparin.
  • (20) After 3-5 days of side-arm traction, swelling had usually diminished sufficiently to allow the elbow to be safely hyperflexed to stabilize the fracture after elective closed reduction.