A channel in which a tidal current runs; also the tidal part of a river; transf. a strong current running in such a channel; = TIDE-GATE1.
[1627–1793: see TIDES-WAY.]
1798. Hull Advertiser, 4 Aug., 2/4. A gunboat … being very manageable in a strong tideway.
1810. J. T., in Risdon’s Surv. Devon, p. xxxii. It … serves to convey shipping from the Tideway.
1856. Kane, Arct. Expl., I. xxvii. 359. A moment’s check would plunge the whole concern into the rapid tide-way.
1875. Bedford, Sailor’s Pocket Bk., v. (ed. 2), 153. Sounding in a tide-way it may be necessary to anchor the boat.
fig. 1821–30. Ld. Cockburn, Mem., iii. (1874), 149. His shop, in the very tideway of all our business, made it the natural resort of … all sorts of literary idlers.
1880. G. Meredith, Tragic Com. (1881), 60. A lead that … would roll him on a good tideway strong in his own passion and his lady’s up against the last defences.
1883. Century Mag., Oct., 823/1. Henry VIII.’s palace has not been forever a barber’s shop, or the Strand a tide-way of shop-keeping.
