Undertow vs Riptide - What's the difference?
undertow | riptide |
To pull or tow under; drag beneath; pull down.
* 1914 , Denton Jaques Snider, Lincoln at Richmond :
To pull down by, or as by, an undertow.
* 1998 , Richard Gough, David Williams, Ric Allsopp, Performance Research: On Place :
* 2003 , Michael T. Leibig, Mike Leibig Traveling in Disguise :
To flow or behave as an undertow.
* 1917 , The Unpopular review:
A short-range flow of water returning seaward from the waves breaking on the shore.
(by extension) A feeling that runs contrary to one's normal one.
A particularly strong tidal current
A rip current which may carry a swimmer offshore (the term rip tide used in this sense is a misnomer)
Undertow is a see also of riptide.
As nouns the difference between undertow and riptide
is that undertow is a short-range flow of water returning seaward from the waves breaking on the shore while riptide is a particularly strong tidal current.As a verb undertow
is to pull or tow under; drag beneath; pull down.undertow
English
Verb
(en verb)- Off in a gallop the General wheeled vanishing, And sped his steed away into the blue, When Lineoln now alone let go his speech Which had before been undertowed by force, [...]
- A sense that the air, a sighting of muddy river, or that outcrop of rock so implacably bland in the light of midday, is undertowed by memory.
- I sink because I cannot swim, undertowed to the Centre, abandoning all remembrance of the surface toward the cloud of unknowing, without choice I'm pulled.
- Everybody knows this and acts accordingly; but when you say it, it sounds bad and bold, and makes you uncomfortable to hear it, because the puritan blood is still undertowing in your veins.
Noun
(en noun)- A strong undertow may sweep a returning swimmer off their feet but it does not carry them far from the shore.
See also
* rip currentriptide
English
Alternative forms
* rip tideNoun
- This beach suffers from a riptide that can easily sweep you out to sea.