the occurrence of incoming water (between a low tide and the following high tide); "a tide in the affairs of men which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune" -Shakespeare
the erosive process of washing away soil or gravel by water (as from a roadway); "from the house they watched the washout of their newly seeded lawn by the water"
the channel or break produced by erosion of relatively soft soil by water; "it was several days after the storm before they could repair the washout and open the road"