moon flood

plural moon floods

1. Either the moon's tide or a tidal flood.

   How I exult when the moon-flood gushes, drowning the white snowspurt of the Devil's snake! It tinges all its length with scarlet stains and mauve globules of burning dew.

   2003, Kenneth Grant, Gamaliel The Diary of a Vampire, page 27

   2 more examples

   Doubtful at first and far away, / The moon-flood creeps more wide and wide ; Up a ridged beach of cloudy gray, Curved round the east as round a bay, / It slips and spreads its gradual tide.

   1876, Lowell, James Russell, “ALADDIN. AN INVITATION. The Nomades.”, in The poetical works of James Russell Lowell, page 345

   [...] crab traps and other dockside summer paraphernalia, against Harvest Moon flood tides and the odd late hurricane that might yet brush by while we’re at work over in Baltimore or off lecture-traveling.

   1994, John Barth, “Overture "Gone"”, in Once Upon a Time, page 3