TIDAL WAVE • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Tidal wave

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/tˈaɪdəl weɪv/ Listen

noun

Tidal wave n.

An unusually high wave from the sea, sometimes reaching far inland and causing great destruction, and usually caused by some event, such as an earthquake, far from the shore. In Japan, such a wave is called a tsunami.

(fig.) An unusually large quantity of items or events requiring attention and causing strain on the capacity to handle them; as, a tidal wave of orders for a new product; a tidal wave of tourists.

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Etymology of 'Tidal wave'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Tidal wave" Quotes from Famous Books

... pen-and-ink sketches with the name of "Kim," was one of that considerable army of young adventurers in the arts who pushed westward from the Atlantic seaboard at the time of the World's Fair in Chicago; also one of the large number who had been left stranded when the tidal wave of artistic effort had receded, exposing the dead flats of hard times. After graduation from an eastern college of the second class, where he had distinguished himself by composing the comic opera libretto for his club and drawing for the college annual, he had chosen for himself the career ...

— One Woman's Life • Robert Herrick

... nightly to the sky; The tidal wave unto the sea; Nor time, nor space, nor deep, nor high, Can keep my ...

— The World's Best Poetry, Volume 3 - Sorrow and Consolation • Various

... the very water which protected me from these dangers might make possible the secret incursions of larger creatures. The disadvantage of this semi-marine style of architecture, as I looked at it, was that some night a big tidal wave might come along, chasing a frolicsome earthquake, and bearing my house and myself along with it, leave us hanging high and dry in the tops of some clump of palm trees half a ...

— Anting-Anting Stories - And other Strange Tales of the Filipinos • Sargent Kayme

... spoke of it as people talk of a tidal wave in China. They did not exactly wish the wave to destroy the whole of China, but they would all have felt a little annoyed if it had ...

— The Dark Tower • Phyllis Bottome

... point from a hundred and thirty-five to two hundred and fifteen metres, with a depth of five metres on the quays at lowest tide. These tides are felt as far as twenty miles above the town. They vary in height from one metre to as much as three, and a tidal wave is formed that is one of the greatest dangers of the downstream navigation. Coming up from the sea is fairly easy in almost any kind of stout and steady craft, but it is difficult for all but the best steamers to get down without ...

— The Story of Rouen • Sir Theodore Andrea Cook

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