[f. TIDE sb. II.]
1. trans. a. To carry, as the tide does. Chiefly fig.
1640. Quarles, Enchirid., III. 48. Man’s Will is the Streame that Tydes them [our actions] up and downe.
1693. Dryden, Persius’ Sat., vi. (1697), 494. The Relicks of the Wrack … are tided back By the wild Waves, and rudely thrown ashore.
1824. Lady Granville, Lett., June. A flow of animal spirits and good humour … tided off anything approaching to bore.
1884. Daily News, 30 Oct., 7/3. So long will each flood continue to tide up the river varying proportions of sewage or other offensive matter.
b. † To carry through (an undertaking) (obs.); to enable (a person) to surmount (a difficulty, etc.) as on a swelling tide.
1626. B. Jonson, Staple of N., IV. iv. I will tyde this affayre for you; giue it freight and passage.
c. 1860. in Holman-Hunt, Pre-Raphaelitism (1905), II. 196. We should like to tide him over his low-water difficulties.
1869. Goulburn, Purs. Holiness, viii. 73. As an exuberant mounting flood shall tide us over the difficulties of our career.
1870. J. Bruce, Life of Gideon, vi. 109. We are to be tided over all our doubts and difficulties by what I would call a swelling flood of evidences or proofs.
2. intr. (and with it). To flow or surge, as the tide; to flow to and fro; sometimes = ‘flow’ as opposed to ‘ebb.’ Also fig.
1593–1654. [see TIDING vbl. sb. 1].
1659. W. Brough, Schism, 555. When popular favour blows from us, and secular power tydes it against us and storms us.
1661. Webster & Rowley, Thracian Wonder, V. The seas, Whose equal valour neither ebbs nor tides.
1833. T. Hook, Parson’s Dau., II. xii. The muddy stream of domestic correspondence [i.e., between the servants] which ‘tided’ between Binford and Severnstoke.
1843. E. Jones, Sens. & Event, Poems 3. The sounding crowd That far beneath him tides.
3. trans. To make to flow as a tide or stream.
1861. Dickens, Gt. Expect., xix. Tiding it [a roll of cloth] out in a flowing manner over the counter.
4. intr. To float or drift on the tide; spec. Naut., to navigate a ship by taking advantage of favoring tides, and anchoring when the tide turns; usually with adv. of direction. Often to tide it.
1627. Capt. Smith, Seaman’s Gram., x. 47. To Tide ouer to a place, is to goe ouer with the Tide of ebbe or flood, and stop the contrary by anchoring till the next Tide.
1691. Luttrell, Brief Rel. (1857), II. 244. Our fleet … are now sailed out, and are now tiding it down with the wind directly against them.
1716. Lady M. W. Montagu, Lett. to C’tess of Mar, 3 Aug. We … set out in a calm, and be pretended there was nothing so easy as to tide it over [from Gravesend to Holland].
1836. Marryat, Olla Podr, xxvi. We tided and warped how we could.
1893. H. M. Doughty, Wherry in Wendish L., 71. We could in the morning tide it up further with the flood.
1896. A. Austin, Eng. Darling, IV. ii. Hither there tided The loose-limbed Briton.
b. fig. To pass or be carried as on the tide; to drift.
1835. Mrq. Londonderry, in Dk. Buckhm., Crt. Will. IV. (1861), II. vii. 186. These questions would certainly tide on till next year.
1842. Manning, Serm. (1848), I. 86. He will most surely tide onward … down the broad current of eternal death.
c. quasi-trans. To tide one’s way: to make one’s way by using the tides; also fig.
1833. Southey, Lett. (1856), IV. 332. Ministers are now endeavouring to tide their way through the session.
1854. H. Miller, Sch. & Schm. (1858), 361. We tided our slow way north.
5. intr. fig. To tide over: to get over or surmount (a difficulty, time of stress, etc.) as if by rising on the flowing tide, or by taking advantage of a favorable tide. With indirect passive. Also † to tide it out (obs.).
a. 1659. Osborn, Ess., ii. Wks. (1673), 558. Christianity … is prescribed by her Institutes to Tide it out, although the Stream of its Inconveniencies runs never so strong against the Nature of Man.
1821. Earl of Dudley, Lett., 21 April. I wish we may be able to tide over this difficulty.
1865. Seeley, Ecce Homo, iv. (ed. 8), 36. The transgressor has but to tide over a few years.
1884. Manch. Exam., 12 May, 4/7. We … believe that for the moment the difficulty is tided over.
