SUBSIDING

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does subsiding mean? 

• SUBSIDING (noun)
  The noun SUBSIDING has 1 sense:

1. a gradual sinking to a lower level

  Familiarity information: SUBSIDING used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SUBSIDING (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A gradual sinking to a lower level

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Synonyms:

settling; subsidence; subsiding

Hypernyms ("subsiding" is a kind of...):

sinking (a descent as through liquid (especially through water))

Derivation:

subside (sink to a lower level or form a depression)

 Context examples 

Heat is circulated through Titan's atmosphere via a pole-to-pole cycle of warm gases upwelling at the summer pole and cold gases subsiding at the winter pole.

(Cassini Sees Dramatic Seasonal Changes on Titan, NASA)

In three minutes I had the HISPANIOLA sailing easily before the wind along the coast of Treasure Island, with good hopes of turning the northern point ere noon and beating down again as far as North Inlet before high water, when we might beach her safely and wait till the subsiding tide permitted us to land.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

There was only a comfortable glow that warmed and did him good without putting him into a fever, and he was reluctantly obliged to confess that the boyish passion was slowly subsiding into a more tranquil sentiment, very tender, a little sad and resentful still, but that was sure to pass away in time, leaving a brotherly affection which would last unbroken to the end.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Mind you don't, said Bessie; and when she had ascertained that I was really subsiding, she loosened her hold of me; then she and Miss Abbot stood with folded arms, looking darkly and doubtfully on my face, as incredulous of my sanity.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Instead of subsiding as night drew on, it seemed to augment its rush and deepen its roar: the trees blew steadfastly one way, never writhing round, and scarcely tossing back their boughs once in an hour; so continuous was the strain bending their branchy heads northward—the clouds drifted from pole to pole, fast following, mass on mass: no glimpse of blue sky had been visible that July day.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)