sea-puss

Noun

sea puss (plural sea pusses)

1. A strong seaward current; a riptide or undertow, especially as results when a sandbar formed by waves suddenly gives way, and which is dangerous to swimmers.
   • Sometimes owing to a peculiar formation of the coast, the waves are brought together in an angle, indenting the shore in such a way that this return flow, or undertow, runs out to sea in a continuous stream, which is called a sea-puss. The sea-puss is of variable width—from twenty or thirty feet to...1877 August, N. B. Emerson, “Sea-Bathing”, in The Sailors' Magazine and Seamen's Friend, volume 49, number 8, page 227
2. The (flowing) channel which results when a cut is made (often deliberately by humans) in a barrier beach which separates a bay from an ocean, so as to control the water level in the bay (which affects water mills) and its salinity (which affects shellfish).