Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A line or mark on a shore indicating the highest or lowest level reached by the tide.
  • noun A trace or indication of past activity.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The limit of the flow or of the ebb of the tide.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun a mark on a shore line indicating the normal level of the water at high tide, caused by the action of the flowing water; sometimes also used for the mark left at the point of the normal low tide; -- called also high water mark.
  • noun the maximum level which some activity has reached and from which it has declined; -- called also high water mark.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun a line (of seaweed or differently coloured sand etc) on the shore showing the level of high or low tide
  • noun by extension any mark showing the limit of some past activity
  • noun humorous a line of scum left on a bath tub when the water is drained away

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun indicator consisting of a line at the highwater or low-water limits of the tides

Etymologies

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Examples

  • At some point the old cast-iron guttering must have become blocked with autumn leaves, because a tidemark of where it had overflowed could still be traced running down the brickwork.

    The Home for Broken Hearts Rowan Coleman 2010

  • Driving from Tuzla in BiH to Bijeljinja in Republika Srpska, for example, brings you to what is almost a tidemark of wrecked homesteads and minefields.

    The Bosnian Trojan Horse 2007

  • Driving from Tuzla in BiH to Bijeljinja in Republika Srpska, for example, brings you to what is almost a tidemark of wrecked homesteads and minefields.

    Archive 2007-12-02 2007

  • He walked along the tidemark and searched for the smooth fist-sized stones he preferred for hunting rabbits.

    Stormwarden Wurts, Janny 1989

  • But outside the cottage, beached above the tidemark of black weed and smashed shells, lay a good boat, as good as any in the islands, and the nets spread to dry over the boulders were far better than Brude could have made.

    The Wicked Day Stewart, Mary, 1916- 1983

  • It surprised him that they had stuck in his memory, like flotsam left at a freak tidemark.

    The Alamut Ambush Price, Anthony 1971

  • It may be upon a tiny bay that you have emerged, with the meadows sloping straight to tidemark, and out beyond the wild fowl feeding by the kelp beds.

    Roughing it De Luxe John T. McCutcheon 1910

  • Mr. Cahoon's countenance -- that portion of it above the whisker tidemark, of course -- registered horror at the thought.

    Fair Harbor Joseph Crosby Lincoln 1907

  • Grudgingly they obeyed, drew the boat beyond tidemark, and followed him to the top of the miserable islet, whence a view was commanded of the whole wheel of the horizon, then part darkened under the coming night, part dyed with the hues of the sunset, and populous with the sunset clouds.

    The Wrecker 1898

  • Much the largest proportion of the lands so reclaimed, though for the most part lying above low-water tidemark, are at a lower level than the Lincolnshire fens, and more subject to inundation from the irruptions of the sea.

    Earth as Modified by Human Action, The~ Chapter 04 (historical) 1874

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