[SPRING sb.1]
1. The season of spring; spring-time.
1530. Palsgr., 306/1. Belongyng to the springe tyde, vernal.
1576. Fleming, Panopl. Epist., 352. What man is able to affirme, that he euer sawe the Spring tide without Marche Uiolettes?
1601. R. Johnson, Kingd. & Commw. (1603), 13. It hapneth very often that the northren or western winde … bringeth springtide before the winter season be fully expired.
1632. Lithgow, Trav., III. 85. There is no land more temperate for ayre, for it hath a double spring-tyde.
1795. Gentl. Mag., July, 539. The animalculæ that in spring-tide often almost obscure the sun itself.
1864. Skeat, trans. Uhland’s Poems, 251. Spring-tide reigns o’er stream and field.
1870. Lowell, Study Wind., 223. A breath of uncontaminate springtide seems to lift the hair upon my forehead.
b. fig. and transf.
1596. Spenser, Astrophel, Epit. ii. 10. His life was my spring tide.
1602. Fulbecke, Pandects, Ded. p. i. Which in one and this very springtide haue in my selfe knowne the force of seasons.
1640. T. Carew, Poems, To my Cousin, 2. Happy youth, that shalt possesse Such a spring-tyde of delight.
1879. Geo. Eliot, Theo. Such, xiv. 249. He is no longer in his spring-tide.
1879. M. Collins, Pen Sketches, I. 213. The spring-tide of her youth.
2. A tide occurring on the days shortly after the new and full moon, in which the high-water level reaches its maximum.
Cf. Du. and WFris. springtij, NFris. -tidj, G. -(ge)zeit. In quots. 1689 and 1724 the reference is to the corresponding lowness of the ebb.
a. 1548. Hall, Chron., Hen. VIII., 209 b. At whiche season was suche a spryng tide, that it brake the walles of Hollande and Zelande.
1573. Tusser, Husb. (1878), 60. At full and at change, spring tides are strange.
1634–5. Brereton, Trav. (Chetham Soc.), 97. Here is an haven … whereinto at a spring-tide a ship of 100 ton may enter.
1689. Lond. Gaz., No. 2478/1. Whither he would march the next Spring-Tide, the Strand … not being fordable for Foot till that time.
1724. in Picton, L’pool Munic. Rec. (1886), II. 52. Which stones … are adry only on spring tydes.
1776. Dalrymple, Ann. Scotl., I. 138. A sudden land-flood, met by a spring-tide, surrounded and overwhelmed the town.
1839. Stonehouse, Isle of Axholme, 49. The spring tides run at the rate of nine miles an hour.
1879. Froude, Cæsar, xvi. 265. When the full moon brought the spring tide.
b. fig. and in fig. context.
c. 1620. Z. Boyd, Zion’s Flowers (1855), 42. In a Spring tide Sin doth overflowe.
1679. J. Goodman, Penit. Pard., II. iv. (1713), 222. They [new converts] find they cannot maintain those spring-tides constantly at the same height.
1778. Johnson, Lett. (1892), II. 72. You appear to me to be now floating on the springtide of prosperity; on a tide not governed by the moon.
1809. Scott, Lett., in Lockhart (1837), II. vii. 253. The spring-tide may for ought I know, break in this next session of Parliament.
1853. R. S. Surtees, Sponge’s Sp. Tour, xxxi. 188. He once did us the honour … of walking down Bond-street with us, in the spring-tide of fashion.
1890. Spectator, 29 March, 426/1. It should convince them that there is no spring tide flowing strongly towards Home-rule.
3. transf. A copious flow or large quantity of something.
1593. Nashe, Christ’s T., Wks. (Grosart), IV. 79. Heere ebbe the spring-tide of my Teares.
1645. Quarles, Sol. Recant., VI. 71. If spring tides of Gold should a degree Transcend thy wish, perchance it would want thee.
1660. W. Secker, Nonsuch Prof., Pref. 7. In the highest flood and spring-tides of outward mercies, its hard to keep our hearts within the channell.
a. 1704. T. Brown, Dial. Dead, Wks. 1711, IV. 27. What of late Years brings daily such Gluts and Spring-Tides of Souls to our Infernal Mansions.
1753. H. Walpole, Lett. (1846), II. 472. This has been quite a spring-tide of diversion.
1808. Scott, Marm., I. Introd. 217. Woe, wonder, and sensation high, In one spring-tide of ecstasy!
1887. Knox Little, Broken Vow, 163. To check the springtide of my girlish joy.
4. attrib. and Comb., as spring-tide flood, joy, etc.
1662. Hibbert, Body Divinity, II. 32. An ebullition or a spring-tide-like overflow.
1748. Thomson, Cast. Indol., I. lxiii. When spring-tide joy pours in with copious flood, The higher still th’ exulting billows flow.
1785. Burns, Ep. W. Simpson, xi. At Wallace’ name, what Scottish blood, But boils up in a spring-tide flood.
1808. Scott, Marm., III. viii. No thrush Sings livelier from a spring-tide bush.
1819. Keats, Eve of St. Mark, 10. The chilly sunset faintly told … Of rivers new with spring-tide sedge.
1866. S. B. James, Duty & Doctrine (1871), 62. That Heavenly spring-tide radiance which can never fade away.
