What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Ebb vs Languish - What's the difference?

ebb | languish |

As verbs the difference between ebb and languish

is that ebb is to flow back or recede while languish is to lose strength and become weak; to be in a state of weakness or sickness.

As a noun ebb

is the receding movement of the tide.

As an adjective ebb

is low, shallow.

ebb

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • The receding movement of the tide.
    • The boats will go out on the ebb .
  • * (rfdate) Shelley
    • Thou shoreless flood which in thy ebb and flow / Claspest the limits of morality!
  • A gradual decline.
  • * (rfdate) Roscommon
    • Thus all the treasure of our flowing years, / Our ebb of life for ever takes away.
  • A low state; a state of depression.
  • * (rfdate) Dryden
    • Painting was then at its lowest ebb .
  • * 2002 , (Joyce Carol Oates), The New Yorker , 22 & 29 April
    • A "lowest ebb'" implies something singular and finite, but for many of us, born in the Depression and raised by parents distrustful of fortune, an "' ebb " might easily have lasted for years.
  • A European bunting, .

    • Derived terms

    * ebb and flow * ebb tide

    Antonyms

    * flood * flow

    Related terms

    * tide

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • to flow back or recede
    • The tides ebbed at noon .
  • to fall away or decline
    • The dying man's strength ebbed away .
  • to fish with stakes and nets that serve to prevent the fish from getting back into the sea with the ebb
  • To cause to flow back.
    • (Ford)

    Synonyms

    ebb away, ebb down, ebb off, ebb out, reflux, wane

    Adjective

    (er)
  • low, shallow
    • The water there is otherwise very low and ebb . (Holland)
    ----

    languish

    English

    Verb

    (es)
  • To lose strength and become weak; to be in a state of weakness or sickness.
  • * Bible, 2 Esdras viii. 31
    • We do languish of such diseases.
  • To pine away in longing for something; to have low spirits, especially from lovesickness.
    • He languished without his girlfriend
  • To live in miserable or disheartening conditions.
    • He languished in prison for years
  • To be neglected; to make little progress, be unsuccessful.
    • The case languished for years before coming to trial.
  • (obsolete) To make weak; to weaken, devastate.
  • * 1815 , Jane Austen, Emma
    • He is an excellent young man, and will suit Harriet exactly: it will be an "exactly so," as he says himself; but he does sigh and languish , and study for compliments rather more than I could endure as a principal.
    (Tennyson)

    Related terms

    * languid * languor * languorous