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Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
rip-tide

also riptide, 1862, from rip (n.1) + tide (n.). It is a current not a tide, and the attempt to correct it to rip current dates from 1936.

Usage examples of "rip-tide".

Nefer felt that he was caught in a great storm wind, as helpless as if he were carried away on a rip-tide of the ocean.