[f. FLOOD sb. + TIDE.] The rising or inflowing tide: = FLOOD sb. 1.
1719. De Foe, Crusoe (1840), II. iv. 75. They had a fair breeze and the flood-tide with them.
1841. Marryat, Poacher, xxxviii. The flood-tide has made almost an hour, and we must sail at the first of the ebb, as twelve hours’ delay may be most serious.
fig. 1861. Trench, Comm. Ep. 7 Churches, 77. It seemed as if the flood-tides of a thankful love would never ebb, but would bear it triumphantly over every obstacle.
1874. Morley, Compromise (1886), 34–5. We have been, in spite of momentary declensions, on a flood tide of high profits and a roaring trade, and there is nothing like a roaring trade for engendering latitudinarians.
