Low tide is the time when ocean water is at its lowest level on the shore. Twice each day, the ocean's surface rises and falls in a rhythm called the tide, pulled by the gravitational force of the moon and sun. At low tide, the water retreats from the beach, exposing sand, rocks, and tide pools that were underwater hours earlier.

If you visit a beach at low tide, you might walk fifty yards farther out on wet sand than you could at high tide. Tide pools appear, filled with sea creatures like starfish, crabs, and anemones waiting for the water to return. Boats that floated easily at high tide might rest on mud or sand until the tide comes back in.

The phrase is also used metaphorically: when someone says a situation has reached low tide, they mean it's at its lowest or weakest point. A team might experience low tide during a losing streak, though like the ocean's tide, things eventually turn around again. The opposite of low tide is high tide, when water reaches its highest point on the shore.