Meaning

noun a gradual decline (in size or strength or power or number)

noun the outward flow of the tide

verb flow back or recede

originFrom Middle English ebbe, from Old English ebba (“ebb, tide”), from Proto-West Germanic *abbjā, from Proto-Germanic *abjô, *abjǭ, from Proto-Germanic *ab (“off, away”), from Proto-Indo-European *apó. See also West Frisian ebbe, Dutch eb, German Ebbe, Danish ebbe, Old Norse efja (“countercurrent”), Old English af. More at of, off.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0