neap

Meanings

Noun

• The tongue or pole of a cart or other vehicle drawn by two animals.
• A neap tide.
• Alternative of neep

Adjective

• Low; lowest; the ebb or lowest point of a tide.
• Designating a tide which occurs just after the first and third quarters of the moon, when there is the least difference between high tide and low tide.

Verb

• To trap a ship (or ship and crew) in water too shallow to move, due to the smaller tidal range occurring in a period of neap tides.
• to ooze, to sink, to subside, to tail />

Origin

• Perhaps of Scandinavian origin: compare dialectal Norwegian neip.
• From Middle English neep, from Old English nēp ("scant, lacking"), possibly from Proto-Germanic *nōpiz ("narrow"). Found especially in Old English nēpflōd. Compare Norwegian dialectal nøpen.