| 释义 |
▪ I. water, n.|ˈwɔːtə(r)|
Forms: 1–3 wæter, 2–5 weter, 3 Orm. waterr, (pl. wattress), 3–5 watre, 4 Sc. valtir, vatter, vatyr, (pl. wateren), 4–5 watere, wattre, watur, -yr, 4–6 watir, 4, 6 Sc. vattir, 4–7 chiefly Sc. watter, -ir, 4–7 Sc. walter, 5 vatur, wature, -yre, wadyr, Sc. wattyr, 5–6 Sc. waltir, vater, 6 watier, Sc. wattar, valter, 8–9 Anglo-Ir. wather, 9 dial. waater, waiter, wetter, 2– water.
[Com. Teut.: OE. wæter neut. corresponds to OFris. watar, watir, weter, etc., OS. watar (MLG., LG., Du. water), OHG. waȥȥar, waȥar (MHG. waȥȥer, mod.G. wasser):—OTeut. *watar-; a parallel formation with n instead of r occurs in Goth. watō neut. (genit. watins), ON. vatn neut. (Norw. vatn, Sw. vatten, Da. vand). The Indogermanic root *wod- (Teut. *wat-) occurs in OSl., Russ. voda water; the ablaut-variant *wēd- (Teut. *wǣt-) is represented in wet a.; the ablaut-variant *ud- (Teut. *ut-) is found more widely: cf. Skr. udán, Gr. ὕδωρ (genit. ὕδατος:—*udn̥tos), Lith. undů̃ (also vandů̃), OPrussian unds, undo, Umbrian utur, water, L. unda wave; also the derivatives with the sense ‘water-animal’ (see otter).]
I. The liquid of which seas, lakes, and rivers are composed, and which falls as rain and issues from springs. When pure, it is transparent, colourless (except as seen in large quantity, when it has a blue tint), tasteless, and inodorous.
Popular language recognizes kinds of ‘water’ that have not all these negative properties; but (even apart from any scientific knowledge) it has usually been more or less clearly understood that these are really mixtures of water with other substances.
1. a. gen.
c897ælfred Gregory's Past. C. 309 Onsend Ladzarus, ðætte he ᵹewæte his ytemestan finger on wættre. c1050Suppl. ælfric's Gloss. 177/30, 31 Aqua, wæter. Limpha, hluttor wæter. c1200Ormin 14038 Crist badd tatt teȝȝ sholldenn gan & fillenn þeȝȝre fetless Wiþþ waterr. 1551T. Wilson Logic F ij, Water is made whot, here we see that it chaunceth to water (contrary to her nature) to be warme, and therefore it is called chaunceable. 1625N. Carpenter Geogr. Del. i. i. (1635) 9 Water being no other than a thin and fluid body,—must needs require a hard and solid body, whereon to support it selfe. 1752Hume Polit. Disc. v. (ed. 2) 83 All water, wherever it communicates, remains always at a level. 1756Burke Subl. & B. iv. xxi, Water, when simple, is insipid, inodorous, colourless, and smooth. 1798Coleridge Anc. Mar. ii. 121 Water, water, every where, Nor any drop to drink. 1813Sir H. Davy Agric. Chem. (1814) i. 16 Water is raised from the ocean diffused through the air and poured down upon the soil. 1816J. Smith Panorama Sci. & Art II. 145 Water will pass through the pores of gold rather than suffer compression, and appears to be nearly inelastic. 1850Tennyson In Mem. lviii, As drop by drop the water falls In vaults and catacombs.
b. With various qualifying words, denoting kinds of water distinguished by their properties or origin: see ice-water, rain-water, river-water, salt water, sea-water, snow-water, spring-water, sweet water; cold water, hot water, warm water; also fresh a. 5, hard a. 14 a, soft a. 25 a.
c. Considered as antagonistic to fire.
1390Gower Conf. I. 266 For as the water of a welle Of fyr abateth the malice, Riht so [etc.]. 1546J. Heywood Prov. (1867) 10 Foule water as soone as fayre, will quenche hot fyre. 1593Shakes. Rich. II, iii. iii. 56 Me thinkes King Richard and my selfe should meet With no lesse terror then the Elements Of Fire and Water, when their thundring smoake At meeting teares the cloudie Cheekes of Heauen. 1879Encycl. Brit. IX. 235/2 In coping with fires, water is the great agent employed.
fig.1682Bunyan Greatn. Soul (1691) 3 This kind of Language tends to cast Water upon weak and beginning Desires.
d. As supplied for domestic needs, esp. as conveyed by a channel or conduit from the source, and distributed through pipes to the houses of a district. Phrases, to cut off, turn on the water.
1535Coverdale 2 Kings xx. 20 The pole and water condyte, wherby he conueyed water in to the cite. 1596Harington Metam. Ajax H 2 b, At Shaftsburie, where water is deerest of anie towne I know. 1653J. Nicoll Diary (Bannatyne Club) 105 Lytill watter could be fund, bot the pepill of Edinburgh wer forcit to bring thair watter from far. 1835Dickens Sk. Boz, Parish i, The turn-cock having turned on the water. 1836Ibid., Shops & Tenants, At last the company's man came to cut off the water.
e. As used for motive power.
1698Floyer Asthma (1717) To Rdr. p. xxv, Like a Mill which stands still for want of Water.
f. In various similative and figurative phrases, many of which are of biblical origin: see, e.g., Gen. xlix. 4, Jos. vii. 5, 2 Sam. xiv. 14, Ps. lxxix. 3. to write on or in water [= L. in aqua scribere, Gr. γράϕειν εἰς ὕδωρ]: to fail to leave abiding record of (something). (To spend money) like water: profusely, recklessly. † to put water in (a person's) worts: to make things unpleasant for him. † water in one's shoes: something disagreeable. † to hold out water, to bear water: = ‘to hold water’ (fig.): see hold v. 32. † where the water sticks [after L. hæret aqua]: where discussion comes to a standstill. water over the dam or water under the bridge (dyke, mill and varr.): past events which it is unprofitable to revive or discuss; a way of saying ‘a long time has passed’.
971Blickl. Hom. 237 Maneᵹa tintreᵹa hie þe onbringað..swa þætte þin blod flewþ ofer eorðan swa swa wæter. c1385Chaucer L.G.W. 852 The blood out of the wounde as brode sterte As water, whan the conduit broken is. 1544R. Ascham Toxoph. i. (Arb.) 28, I found my good bowe..as weake as water. 1546Heywood Prov. i. xi. (1867) 32 It is, to geue him, as muche almes or neede As cast water in tems. 1579Gosson Apol. Sch. Abuse (Arb.) 64 They haue..threatned highly, too put water in my woortes, whensoeuer they catche me. 1604Shakes. Oth. v. ii. 134 She was false as water. 1608Dekker Lanth. & Candle-light viii. G 5, Yet they haue a tricke (like water cut with a swoord) to come together instantly and easily againe. 1611Beaum. & Fl. Philaster v. iii, All your better deeds Shall be in water writ, but this in Marble. 1612Pasquil's Night-Cap (1877) 38 No, this deuice too much in vse is growne, And will not hold out water to the last. 1613Shakes. Hen. VIII, iv. ii. 46 Mens euill manners liue in Brasse, their Vertues We write in Water. 1655Bramhall Def. True Liberty 20 This is the very question where the water sticks between us [sc. between Hobbes and Bramhall]. 1697Tryon Way to Health vi. 98 Though it be a vulgar Proverb—As weak as Water. 1704N. N. tr. Boccalini's Advts. fr. Parnass. I. 59 But I must beg leave to tell you, this Excuse will not bear Water. 1728W. Smith Univ. College 185 And upon that Fear and Conviction that his Cause could not bear Water. a1734R. North Life Ld. Kpr. Guilford (1742) 151 They caressed his Lordship very much as a new Comer,..and talked about a Time to dine with him; all which (as they say) was Water in his Shoes. 1824Compl. Hist. Murder Mr. Weare 231 The organ of destructiveness was not at all prominent or developed. This was ‘water in the shoes’ of the phrenologists. 1831S. Warren Diary Late Physic. xxii. (1832) II. 247 He [a cabin-boy] was frequently flogged..till the blood ran down his back like water. 1859Dickens, etc. Haunted Ho. v. 24/1 The sweat poured off my face like water. 1865Kingsley Herew. xx (end), And the hearts of all the French were turned to water; and the land had peace from its tyrants for many days. 1871― Lett. etc. (1877) II. 368 All else is a ‘paralogism’ and runs off them like water off a duck's back. 1898S. Weyman Shrewsbury xiii. 116 Though at one time my heart was water when I thought of betraying him, at another it glowed with rage and loathing. 1913Wireless World I. 34/1 Much water has flowed under London Bridge since those days. 1914Kipling Let. 15 Sept. in Ld. Birkenhead Rudyard Kipling (1978) xviii. 279 Your articles..are a little too remote..but of course—much water, or shall we say much blood, has flowed under the bridges since they were written. 1920Galsworthy In Chancery i. i. 5 It was a startling remark—showing in a flash what a lot of water had run under bridges since the death of Aunt Ann in '88. 1940Nation (N.Y.) 16 Mar. 364 Last year's results are water under the mill. 1940Amer. Guardian 11 Oct. 1 All that is water over the dam. 1955C. S. Forester Good Shepherd 91 He should not have brought the men to battle stations at all... But that was water over the dam; no time for regrets at present. 1964E. F. Beckenbach Appl. Combinatorial Math. x. 292 But these fees are water under the bridge, for we have paid them and they will never be returned to us. 1969‘W. Haggard’ Doubtful Disciple xi. 116 ‘Where did he get it?’ ‘From Seyer, I think—we can't escape that. But that's water over the dam by now.’ 1976Glasgow Herald 26 Nov. 5/4 Does he look back in anger as a result of his wartime experiences? ‘Not now—perhaps a little to start with. But a lot of water has gone under the dyke since then.’ 1977J. Thomson Case Closed iii. 43 It's been quite a time since we last met. Water under the bridge, as they say. 1981Encounter Oct. 7 You don't want to let any of that business bother you... Water under the bridge. Just accept the fact, file it away.
2. a. As a drink, as satisfying thirst, or as necessary aliment for animals and plants. Also fig. (chiefly in biblical uses) applied to what satisfies spiritual needs or desires; cf. water of life.
bread and water (also in Shakes. † bran and water), the type of extreme hard fare, as of a prisoner or a penitent.
c950Lindisf. Gosp. John iv. 13 Eᵹhuelc seðe ᵹedrincað of ðæm uætre þæt ic sello him ne ðyrsteð in æcnisse. a1000Colloq. ælfric in Wr.-Wülcker 102 Hwæt drincst þu? Eala, ᵹif ic hæbbe, oþþe wæter ᵹif ic næbbe ealu. a1200Vices & Virtues 43 Leuere him [sc. Daniel] was..ðat water to drinken ðanne..ðe gode wines. c1200Ormin 3212 Hiss drinnch wass waterr aȝȝ occ aȝȝ, Hiss mete wilde rotess. c1250Gen. & Ex. 1246 Ðor ȝhe gan fremen ysmael Wið watres drinc and bredes mel. 1573–80Tusser Husb. (1878) 81 Howse calfe, and go sockle it twise in a day, and after a while, set it water and hay. 1580Memoriall W. Lambe C iij b, Whose daily custome it was to meditate vpon a Praier booke, called The Conduit of Comfort,..that with the water thereof his soule..might be refreshed. 1588Shakes. L.L.L. i. i. 303 You shall fast a Weeke with Branne and water. 1603― Meas. for M. iv. iii. 159, I am faine to dine and sup with water and bran. 1611Bible Isa. xli. 17. 1656 R. Short Drinking Water 68 Why then should we (like so many Don Quixotes) change our national drink for water? 1731Miller Gard. Dict. s.v. Guidonia, During the Winter-season they should have but little Water. 1749Smollett Gil Blas i. xii, To regale myself still with my bread and water, and the sight of a silent turnkey. 1759R. Brown Compl. Farmer 13 Give the horse a ball in his water. 1842Loudon Suburb. Horticult. 386 When plants are ripening their fruit, a diminished supply of water increases the flavour. 1844H. Stephens Bk. Farm III. 833 One essential requisite in all pasture-fields is an abundant supply of water for stock to drink. 1865Mrs. Whitney Gayworthys xxxvi, She fell back, trembling, against her chair. Mr. Brinley brought her hastily some water. 1921E. L. Masters Mitch Miller xiv. 113 After that they..put him in a dark room and kept him on bread and water for a day.
b. Contrasted with wine, as inferior in strength or pleasantness.
a1300Cursor M. 21295 Þe stile o matheu, water it was, And win þe letter o lucas. 1842Tennyson Locksley Hall 152 Woman is the lesser man, and all thy passions, match'd with mine, Are as moonlight unto sunlight, and as water unto wine.
c. water bewitched (colloq.): used derisively for excessively diluted liquor; now chiefly, very weak tea.
1678Ray Prov. (ed. 2) 84 Water betwitch't, i.e. very thin beer. 1694[see bewitched]. 1699T. Brown L'Estrange's Colloq. of Erasm. Add. v. 53 The Broth was nothing in the world but Water bewitched [L. mera aqua], if it deserved so good a Name. 1731–8Swift Pol. Conversat. i. 24 Your Ladyship is very sparing of your Tea: I protest, the last I took, was no more than Water bewitch'd. a1825Forby Voc. E. Anglia, Water-bewitched, weak tea, coffee, punch, &c.
fig.1845Carlyle Cromwell Introd. ii. I. 25 Another Book of Noble's..is of much more stupid character; nearly meaningless indeed; mere water bewitched.
3. a. As used for dilution of liquors.
1382Wyclif Isa. i. 22 Thi syluer is turned in to dros; thi wyn is mengd with water. 1731–8Swift Pol. Conversat. ii. 165 Lady Smart. I was told, ours [sc. ale] was very strong. Sir John. Ay, Madam, strong of the Water. 1837Dickens Pickw. xxxviii, Mr. Benjamin Allen..produced..a black bottle half full of brandy. ‘You don't take water, of course?’ said Bob Sawyer.
fig.1860Ld. Acton in Gasquet Acton & Circle (1906) 149, I am afraid you will think I have poured a good deal of water into your wine in ‘Tyrol’ and ‘Syria’.
b. In phrasal combinations denoting liquors diluted with water, as brandy-and-water, gin-and-water, rum-and-water, whisky-and-water, wine-and-water: see the first words; also milk-and-water. Hence jocularly in nonce-combinations.
1812H. C. Robinson Jrnl. 13 May in E. J. Morley Blake, Coleridge, Wordsworth, Lamb, Etc. (1922) 50 Bar. Field called Wilson ‘Wordsworth & Water’. 1882Mrs. Oliphant Lit. Hist. Eng. I. 168 The weak Addison-and-water of the ‘Mirror’ and the ‘Lounger’. 1899Daily News 13 Mar. 7/1 He once heard a University sermon described as of the Bible and water order.
c. fig. (Stock Exchange.) Fictitious capital created by the ‘watering’ or ‘diluting’ of the stock of a trading company. See water v. 7 e.
1883Nation (N.Y.) 8 Nov. 384/2 The Committee does not produce any evidence to show that it is the dread of ‘water’ which is now keeping the foreign investor out of Wall Street. 1894Daily News 12 July 5/5 The stock of the Company has been watered three times over, and the Company has not only been able to pay the regular dividends on the water and all, but [etc.].
4. a. As used for washing, steeping, boiling, etc.
c1000Ags. Gosp. Matt. xxvii. 24 Ða ᵹeseah pilatus þæt hyt naht ne fremode..þa ᵹenam he wæter & þwoh hys handa. a1300Cursor M. 20212 Scho..wessh hir suet bodi in water. c1375Sc. Leg. Saints xviii. (Egipciane) 1424, & with his teris wysche þam sone as quha with vattir suld þam don. c1400Rule St. Benet (prose) liii. 35 Þ abbesse sal giue þe gestis water til þaire hende. c1430Two Cookery-bks. 13 Take Vele, Kyde, or Henne, an boyle hem in fayre Water, or ellys in freysshe brothe. 1577B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. i. 35 b, Lupines..being sodden and layd in water..feedeth Oxen in Winter very well. 1605Shakes. Macb. ii. ii. 46 Goe get some Water, And wash this filthie Witnesse from your Hand. 1706E. Ward Wooden World Diss. (1708) 15 So incredibly extravagant is he sometimes, as to wash his Cabin with fresh Water, when the Ship's Company want it to allay the burning Heat of their salt Victuals. 1828Scott F.M. Perth, Chron. Canongate Ser. ii. Introd., These are the stains;..neither water nor any thing else will ever remove them from that spot.
b. Each of the quantities of water used successively in a gradual process of washing.
a1225Ancr. R. 324 Wule a weob beon, et one cherre, mid one watere wel ibleched..? 1684J. S. Profit & Pleas. United 149 Feeding him [your hawk] upon the flesh of Rooks, washed in two waters. a1777in Jrnl. Friends' Hist. Soc. (1914) Oct. 187 Take half a pound of sagoe, and wash it well in 3 or 4 hot waters. 1856Kane Arctic Expl. II. ix. 94 Butter..my own invention, melted from salt beef and washed in many waters. 1875F. J. Bird Dyer's Hand-bk. 33 Wash in two waters and dry.
c. in references to baptism.
c1000Ags. Gosp. Matt. iii. 11 Ic eow fulliᵹe on wætere to dædbote. a1300Cursor M. 19976 Qua mai for-bede Water at baptim. 1387[see cold water b.]. 1567Gude & Godlie B. (S.T.S.) 14 Quhen Goddis word with watter Junit be, Throw Faith, to gif vs lyfe Eternallie. 1597Hooker Eccl. Pol. v. lx. §1 Why are we taught that with water God doth purifie and clense his Church?
5. Water of a mineral spring or a collection of mineral springs used medicinally for bathing or for drinking, or both. Often plural (cf. L. aquæ) preceded by the or the name of a place. to go to the waters (? obs.): to visit a ‘watering-place’ for remedial treatment.
1542–3Act 34 & 35 Hen. VIII. c. 8 Divers honest persones..whome God hathe endued with the knowledge of the nature kinde and operacion of certeyne herbes rotes and waters. 1561Gresham in Burgon Life (1839) I. 122 Sir John a Leye ys not yett come from the water of Spawe. 1563Fulke Meteors iv. (1571) 57 b, Of whote bathes. Some waters that are generated and flowe out of vaynes of brym⁓stone, are sensybly warme, and some very whott... These waters being also drying by nature, are wholsome for many infyrmities. 1641in Verney Mem. (1907) I. 207 Waters have twice donn her good and Spaw water is better than the best waters in England. 1652J. French York-sh. Spaw 85, I approve not of taking the waters too fast. 1676Lady Chaworth in 12th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm. App. v. 29 Lady Portsmouth continues sicke, and some say she will try the French ayre, others the Bath watters. 1712Steele Spect. No. 284 ⁋4 Though I have drunk the Waters, and am told I ought not to use my Eyes so much, I cannot forbear writing to you. 1720Wilcocks in Ellis Orig. Lett. Ser. ii. IV. 321 Since the kings return from the waters, which agreed very well with him, we have had [etc.]. 1775Sheridan St. Patrick's Day i. i, She was such a hand at making foreign waters! for Seltzer, Pyrmont, Islington, or Chalybeate, she never had her equal. 1788Jefferson Writ. (1859) II. 453 He has obtained leave to go to the waters. 1837Dickens Pickw. xxxv, Most welcome to Ba-ath, sir. It is long—very long, Mr. Pickwick, since you drank the waters. 1854Surtees Handley Cr. iii. (1901) I. 19 It was well known their waters were immeasurably inferior to what they enjoyed, not only in sulphuretted hydrogen, but also in iodine and potash. 1879St. George's Hosp. Rep. IX. 579 She was ordered simply a wine-glass of Orezza water after breakfast every morning.
6. a. Water regarded as collected in seas, lakes, ponds, etc., or as flowing in rivers or streams.
Often with definite article, as denoting a particular portion of water referred to. Also, the aqueous part of the earth's surface as a region inhabited by its own characteristic forms of life, in contradistinction to the land and the air.
For piece, sheet of water, see piece n. 3, sheet n.1 8 a.
a1100Gerefa in Anglia IX. 259 Ᵹe on wuda, ᵹe on wætere, ᵹe on felda, ᵹe on falde. c1175Lamb. Hom. 79 Þe uisces iþe wetere and fuȝeles iþe lufte. c1250Gen. & Ex. 2968 And aaron held up his hond, to ðe water and ðe more lond. a1300Cursor M. 399 Þe fiss to watur, als we find, þe fuxol be-taght he to þe wynd. 1377Langl. P. Pl. B. xvi. 189 Alle þat lyf hath a londe & a watre. 1473Rental Bk. Cupar-Angus (1879) I. 178 Tha sal gif al possibil cure and laubour til hald furth the watter with makyn of perys..and plantation of willeis. 1503Dunbar Thistle & Rose 66 Dame Nature gaif ane inhibitioun thair To ferss Neptunus, and Eolus the bawld, Nocht to perturb the wattir nor the air. 1573–80Tusser Husb. (1878) 117 Wash sheepe (for the better) where water doth run. 1605Shakes. Macb. i. iii. 79 The Earth hath bubbles, as the Water ha's. 1781Cowper Task iii. 382 But wisdom is a pearl with most success Sought in still water. 1830Tennyson Arab. Nts. 30 Deep inlay Of braided blooms unmown, which crept Adown to where the water slept. 1849Macaulay Hist. Eng. ix. II. 481 The water in the bay was as even as glass. 1867Ansted Phys. Geog. 125 Owing to the position of the land, we have the water divided into two unequal parts, the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic canal.
b. The plural is often used instead of the sing. esp. with reference to flowing water or to water moving in waves.
For the pl. cf. F. eaux, L. aquæ, Gr. ὕδατα.
c1000Ags. Gosp. Matt. xiv. 28 Dryhten, ᵹyf þu hyt eart, hat me cuman to þe ofer þas wæteru. a1300Cursor M. 380 Þe watters al he cald þe see. 13..E.E. Allit. P. B. 437 Þen he wakened a wynde on watterez to blowe. c1374Chaucer Boeth. v. met. i. (1868) 152 Sone aftre þe same ryueres tigris and eufrates vnioygnen and departen hire watres. 1535Coverdale Ps. lxxvii. 19 Thy waye was in the see, and thy pathes in the great waters. 1610Shakes. Temp. i. ii. 1 If by your Art (my dearest father) you haue Put the wild waters in this Rore, allay them. 1684J. Peter Relat. Siege Vienna 55 About this time the Waters of the Danube swelled so high as to break down the Bridge which the Enemy had made. 1697Dryden æneis ix. 152 Old Tyber roar'd; and raising up his Head, Call'd back his Waters to their Oozy Bed. a1774Goldsm. Hist. Greece II. 174 A river not so remarkable for the breadth of its channel, as for the beauty of its waters. 1798Coleridge Anc. Mar. v. 324 Like waters shot from some high crag, The lightning fell with never a jag, A river steep and wide. 1803–6Wordsw. Ode, Intim. Immort. 171 And see the Children sport upon the shore, And hear the mighty waters rolling evermore. 1842Borrow Bible in Sp. xxiv, Waters sounded, nightingales sang. 1862Longfellow Wayside Inn i. Prel. 260 The cataract hurled Its headlong waters from the height. 1891Farrar Darkn. & Dawn xiii, They..had been baptised in the waters of their native river.
c. In figurative context. (See also troubled a. 1, fish v.1 1 c, oil n.1 3 e.)
deep waters (after Ps. lxix. 2, 14), grave distresses and anxieties; also, difficult or dangerous affairs; now usu. in phr. in deep water(s).
1535Coverdale Ps. lxviii [lxix]. 2, I am come in to depe waters [so also 1611]. Ibid. 14. 1628 A. Leighton Appeal to Parlt. 19 Therfore she loves to fish in troubled Waters. 1662Stillingfl. Orig. Sacræ i. iii. §8 Joseph Scaliger who hath troubled the waters so much concerning the particular circumstances of this translation, yet fully agrees that it was done in the time of Ptolomæus Philadelphus. c1720De Foe Mem. Cavalier (1840) 20 The Cardinal..was..not on very good terms with the queen, but willing to keep smooth water there. 1861T. Hughes Tom Brown at Oxford I. v. 83 Tom felt greatly relieved, as he was beginning to find himself in rather deep water. 1867Trollope Last Chron. Barset I. xxxiv. 294 Once he had been very nearly in deep water because Mrs. Proudie had taken it in dudgeon that a certain young rector, who had been left a widower, had a very pretty governess for his children. 1893Stevenson Catriona iii, These are deep waters... Be cautious and think twice. 1902W. Adamson Life Joseph Parker 204 An unwonted interest was created by Dr. Parker's visit. The usually quiet ecclesiastical waters were stirred. 1933N. Coward Design for Living ii. ii. 62 Our lives are diametrically opposed to ordinary social conventions; and it's no use grabbing at those conventions to hold us up when we find we're in deep water. 1950D. Lessing Grass is Singing viii. 157 He stubbornly went his own way, feeling as if she had encouraged him to swim in deep waters beyond his strength, and then left him to his own devices.
d. pl. The maritime tract belonging to a particular nation; the seas and oceans in a particular quarter of the globe.
1659in Rec. Convent. Burghs Scot. (1878) III. 487 Who..went aboard of tuo Dutch wessellis lying near Inchkeyth, being within our watteris. 1920Round Table Dec. 89 The Alliance..freed us from the necessity of keeping more than a skeleton force in eastern waters in order to defend the Dominions and India.
e. Hunting, Steeplechasing, etc. Streams or ditches which a horse is required to leap.
1860W. P. Lennox Pict. Sporting Life I. 328 You will find him [a horse] a splendid fencer, I never saw the like of him at timber or water; no gate or brook will stop him. 1869G. J. Whyte-Melville Songs & Verses 87 Hunters so limber at water and timber Now on the causeway are fain to be led. 1879Punch 13 Dec. 267 I've never tried this horse at water.
f. slang. to make a hole in the water: to commit suicide by drowning.
1853Dickens Bleak Ho. xlvi, Why I don't go and make a hole in the water I don't know. 1865― Mut. Fr. i. iii, This is the drunken old chap..wot had offered..to make a hole in the water for a quartern of rum stood aforehand, and kept to his word for the first and last time in his life.
†g. pl. Pictorial representations of tracts of water. Obs.
1747Francis tr. Horace, Art P. 34 note, It is chiefly in this View, that Ruisdale's Waters, and Claude Lorrain's Skies are so admirable.
7. In phrases relating to navigation.
a. by water: by ship or boat on the sea or a lake or river or canal. (In OE. = 7 b.)
c1100O.E. Chron. (MS. D) an. 1016, Þa ᵹewende se here to Lundenne, & þa buruh utan ymbesæton, & hyre stearclice onfeaht, æᵹðær ᵹe be wætere ᵹe be lande. c1380Wyclif Wks. (1880) 25 Þei traueilen nyȝt & day, bi watir & lond, in cold & in hete. c1386Chaucer Prol. 400 If þat he faught, and hadde the hyer hond, By water he sente hem hoom to euery lond. 1478W. Paston, Jr. in P. Lett. (1897) III. 237 And if it lyke yow that I may come with Alwedyr be watyr. 1547–8in Feuillerat Revels Edw. VI (1914) 29 The Caring by water to and from grenwy[ch]. 1606Arraignm. Late Traitors (1872) 6 They went from the tower by water, and came to Westminster. 1661Prince Rupert in 11th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm. App. v. 8 My goods goe by Ratisbon, soe by land to Wurtzbourg, and from thence by water the rest of the journey. 1771Smollett Humph. Cl. 4 July (1815) 219 In going down the river, by water, he was by mistake put on board of another vessel under sail. 1809W. Irving Knickerb. vii. xi. (1849) 437 The hostile ships prepared for an assault by water. 1864T. S. Williams & Simmonds Engl. Commerc. Corresp. 116 You will please to receive the said goods, and forward them to us by water. 1886C. Scholl Phraseol. Dict. II. 834 Conveyance is, in this case, cheaper by water than by rail.
b. on or upon (the) water (ME. † a wætere): on the sea, in naval employments or enterprises. Also, to be on the water, to be in course of transport by sea.
c1205Lay. 562, I seih his broðer ferden hu heo iuaren weren a wætere & a londe. 1412–20Lydg. Troy Bk. iv. 1997 So þat victorie, worship, and honour,..To be reported on water & on lond, Reserued ben hooly to ȝoure hond. 1758J. Blake Mar. Syst. 28 Great numbers of men..are employed in the coasting trade, or otherwise upon the water. 1914Daily News 6 Aug. 5 There is a very large quantity [of tea] on the water on its way from the East. 1914Scotsman 24 Aug. 4/2 Germany has to-day another enemy in the field and on the water.
c. In expressions like across, over, on this side the water, to cross the water, the reference is most commonly to the sea.
The Jacobite toast, ‘the king over the water’, meaning the Pretender, was expressed by passing the glass of wine over the water decanter when drinking the health of ‘the king’.
1662Chas. II in Cartwright Madame (Henrietta of Orleans) (1893) 128 People on this side the watter love there profit as well as they do every where else. 1680Alsop Mischief of Impos. v. 31 We may be Schismaticks here in England, when, if we cross the water, we shall be none. 1749Fielding Tom Jones vii. iv, From these meals she retired about five minutes after the other servants, having only stayed to drink the king over the water. 1765Museum Rust. IV. 234 As your work is in such high reputation on this side of the water, it is a matter of great surprise to me, that you should not have many correspondents amongst such of our Irish gentlemen as are improving their estates. 1842Dickens Amer. Notes xviii, Those partial readers of my former books, across the Water, who met me with an open hand. 1901Essex Weekly News 15 Mar. 3/3 At Chelmsford the mare would fetch {pstlg}4 because it was going across the water to be made into meat extract. 1905H. G. Wells Kipps ii. i. §1 Coote remarked that the sea was good for crossing, and asked Kipps if he had been over the water much. 1914Q. Rev. Apr. 318 The world, as we on our side of the water mainly know it.
d. In London the above phrases are often used with reference to the Thames. Similarly (to go) on the water.
1600Essex Reb. Exam. (MS.) in Shaks. Cent. Praise (1879) 35 They went all together to the Globe over the water wher the L. Chamberlens men vse to play. 1731–8Swift Pol. Conversat. i. 46, I promis'd to go this Evening to Hyde-Park on the Water; but I protest, I'm half afraid. 1753J. Collier Art Torment. i. i. (1811) 35 To..go upon the water with you. 1836Dickens Sk. Boz, Shops & Tenants, It is on the Surrey side of the water—a little distance beyond the Marsh-gate. 1853― Bleak Ho. xxi, The theatre over, Mr. George comes across the water again, and makes his way to that curious region lying about the Haymarket and Leicester Square. 1887T. A. Trollope What I remember I. 218, I used to be a good deal upon the water either alone or accompanied by a single friend with a pair of sculls.
8. to take (the) water.
a. Of an animal or waterfowl, also of a person: To enter the sea, a lake or river, and begin to swim.
b. To embark, take ship; in 17–18th c. chiefly, † to take a boat on the Thames (obs.).
c. U.S. ‘To abandon one's position’ (Thornton).
d. Of a ship: To be launched.
1580H. Smith in Hakluyt Voy. (1589) 468 This day..there came a great white beare downe to the water side, and tooke the water of his owne accord. 1607Topsell Four-f. Beasts 149 The sence of smelling is so quicke in these [Sluth⁓hounds], that they can follow the footesteps of theeus,.. and if the theef take the water, they cast in themselues also. a1676Hale Prim. Orig. Man. ii. vii. (1677) 202 As to the Water-Fowls, the difficulty is less, for they can and do supply the weariness of a long flight by taking Water. 1804C. Smith Conversat. etc. I. 27 If I was on horse⁓back on my filly Truffle, and the dogs were to take water,..why I should no more mind plunging in directly [etc.]. 1878Scribner's Monthly XV. 765/1, I heard a splash and saw a deer take the water 300 yards or so above me. 1891New Review Aug. 167, I..lay to to see it take the water, as its evident intention was to cross to the mainland.
b.1548Patten Exped. Scot. D iij b, This thus apointed, my lorde Admirall rode back to take the water agayne. 1650Trapp Comm. Num. xxxii. 23 Taking water, with purpose to sail into Flanders. 1689Luttrell Brief Rel. (1857) I. 524 A gentleman taking water the 18th, when he came near London bridge, pull'd a written paper out of his pocket. 1708Constit. Watermen's Co. 81 None plying the Long-Ferry shall ply one about to take Water with another, except, &c. a1754Carte Hist. Eng. IV. 50 Stukely agreeing to go with him, they took water: but were seized in the way to Gravesend. 1793Regal Rambler 91 He took water at the Temple-stairs. 1821Scott Kenilw. xv, For see, the Queen's barge lies at the stairs, as if her Majesty were about to take water. 1889Mrs. Oliphant Poor Gentl. I. vi. 93 The boating parties that ‘took the water’ there.
c.1858J. G. Baldwin Flush Times 275 ‘If it please your honor, I believe I will take water’ (a common expression, signifying that the person using it would take a nonsuit). 1859Bartlett Dict. Amer. (ed. 2) 470 To Take Water. To run away, make off. A Western expression, doubtless borrowed from sportsmen. 1891C. Roberts Adrift Amer. 200 The fellow, who was really a coward, though nearly twice as big as myself, took water at once.
d.1901Scotsman 7 Mar. 5/6 Launch of the cruiser Kent... The vessel took the water without a hitch.
9. a. Quantity or depth of water, as sufficient or insufficient for navigation. to draw (so much) water: see draw v. 13.
1546J. Heywood Prov. ii. viii. (1867) 73 There was no more water than the ship drew. 1580H. Smith in Hakluyt Voy. (1589) 469 There was not water for the boate betweene Vaigats and the other side: finding no more water, there was no other way but to goe backe as we came in. 1584R. Norman tr. Safegard of Sailers 7 Item, from the north Buie to the Nese, keepe the north Buie with Memelicke, as far as you can see, till you bring those two steeples or towers into one, and then you shall haue water enough. 1716Lond. Gaz. No. 5416/1 There not being Water enough, she was not launched. 1791Smeaton Edystone L. §86 A clear passage to the South, with a sufficiency of water for the craft at low water. 1791R. Mylne 2nd Rep. Thames 10 Good Water from thence to Moulsford. 1793― Rep. Thames 35 There is a pretty good water all the way to Datchet Bridge. And from Datchet Bridge, there is a fine navigable water all the way to New-Lock-Shoal.
b. With prefixed adj., a particular state of the tide: see high water, low water. † full water = full tide.
c1420? Lydg. Assembly of Gods 110 Where as I shuld haue fyllyd dykes depe At a full watyr I might nat thedyr crepe Before my seson came to retorne ayeyne. 1603Reg. Mag. Sig. Scot. 490/2 Cum potestate colligendi lie wraik et wair fra the full sey to the low watter.
10. a. Water received into a boat or ship through a leak, or by the breaking of the waves over the side. to make water [= F. faire eau, It. far acqua, G. wasser machen]: (of a ship or boat) to leak, or to admit or ‘ship’ water over the side, through a port, etc. Also, to take (in) water in the same sense. † to make foul water (obs.): see foul a. 4.
c1386Chaucer Pars. T. 363 The same harm dooth som tyme the smale dropes of water, that entren thurgh a litel creuace in to the thurrok, and in the botme of the shipe. a1553Udall Royster D. iii. ii. 16 It liked hir as well, to tell you no lies, As water in hir shyppe, or salt cast in hir eies. 1555Eden Decades (Arb.) 77 The vytayles corrupted by taking water at the riftes euyll closed. Ibid. 260 One of theyr shyppes leaked and toke water very sore. 1748Anson's Voy. i. iii. 24 The ship made so much water, that with four pumps and bailing he could not free her. 1799Hull Advertiser 13 July 1/4 St. Anna, leaky: made 20 inches of water in an hour. 1825New Monthly Mag. XV. 74 We found by the well that she [sc. a ship] made no water. 1884Law Times 10 May 26/2 She was then found to be making five inches of water per hour. 1890W. F. Rae Maygrove I. iv. 61 The carpenter sounded the well and found that she was making water fast. 1892Idler Apr. 320 The feebleness..of her stroke..prevented the boat from taking much water.
†b. to take (in) water (fig.): ? to have a flaw or weak place. Obs.
1590Nashe Pasquil's Apol. D 2 b, The rest of his reasons haue taken water, and are rotten before they come to shore. 1640Bp. Hall Episc. ii. xx. 202 All the rest are easily freed; St. Jerome and St. Ambrose in the opinion of some seem to take in water.
11. As an enveloping or covering medium. In various phrases.
a. under water: below the surface of water; (of land) flooded, submerged. Hence fig. unsuccessful in life; also (Sc.) in debt. Also Sc. † within water, in the same sense.
1529Registr. Aberdon. (Maitland Club) I. 396 To sustene..mend and uphald..þe brig forsaid..als weill within wattar as abuf. 1598Florio, Sott'acqua, vnder-water, secretlie, out of sight, in hugger mugger. 1660Boyle New Exper. Spring of Air 363 Cornelius Drebell..is affirm'd..to have contriv'd for the late Learned King James, a Vessel to go under Water. 1708Lond. Gaz. No. 4453/2 Our Governor has put all the Country between Bruges and Newport under Water. 1759Johnson Idler No. 49 ⁋5 The country was under water. 1816Scott Old Mort. xlii, And then he got favour, and Lord Evandale's head was under water. 1827Faraday Chem. Manip. xxiv. (1842) 628 Close the tube by the finger,..then open its aperture by removing the finger under water. 1839Lockhart Ballantyne-humbug handled 113 Mr. James [Ballantyne]..was..many thousands under water at the smash. 1914D. Christie 30 Yrs. in Moukden vi. 50 Besides the submerged villages, a large part of the suburbs of Moukden was under water.
b. above water: above the surface of the water. Also fig., esp. in to keep one's head above water, to avoid ruin by a continued struggle.
1662J. Davies tr. Olearius' Voy. Ambass. 35 To save all but our Carpenter, who was lost for want of having fasten'd on somewhat that might have kept him above water. 1705Collier Ess. Mor. Subj. iii. Pain 11 Unless a Man can reconcile himself to Suffering, and keep his Spirits above Water, 'tis in vain to pretend to Principles. 1742Fielding J. Andrews iii. xiii, There are many who, I fancy, believe that..my pockets..are lined with bank-bills; but I assure you, you are all mistaken... If I can hold my head above water it is all I can. 1809Malkin Gil Blas v. i. ⁋7 To carry me discreetly through the world, and keep my head above water. 1864Trollope Small House at Allington xxv, Modern Lotharios—men who were holding their heads well above water, although it was known that they had played this lady false, and brought that other one to death's door. 1885Field 3 Oct. 502/2 A number of struggling men [agriculturists], who have managed to keep above water during the bad seasons, must now go under.
†c. to lay in water, to lay a-water : to make of no effect or value; to dissipate. Obs.
c1394P. Pl. Crede 782 But now þe harlottes han hid thilke rewle, And, for the loue of oure lorde haue leyd hire in water. 1401Pol. Poems (Rolls) II. 43 But, Jak, thouȝ thi questions semen to thee wyse, ȝit liȝtly a lewid man maye leyen hem a water. 1579Gosson Sch. Abuse (Arb.) 21 Either Apollo must haue played the Bonesetter, or euery occupation beene laide a water. 1583Golding Calvin on Deut. xcv. 579 If I lende him money nowe, it is layde a water, I loose a whole yeares occupying of it. 1592Lyly Midas iv. iv, All his expeditions for warres are laid in water.
†d. (to swim) between two waters [= F. (nager) entre deux eaux]: midway between the surface and the bottom; fig. keeping an impartial or a temporizing attitude between two parties. Obs.
1579Tomson Calvin's Serm. Tim. 791/2 How many are there that will swim betwixt two waters, and play the indifferent men, which wuld haue a Gospel betwixt both? 1603D. Carleton in Crt. & Times Jas. I (1848) I. 28 The king held himself upright betwixt two waters. 1660F. Brooke tr. Le Blanc's Trav. 3 Sliding the Anchor on one side betwixt two waters.
12. A body of water on the surface of the earth.
a. gen. A body or collection of standing or flowing water, irrespective of size; a sea, lake, river, etc.
a1100in Kemble Cod. Dipl. IV. 204 Mid wateren and mid moren. 1297R. Glouc. (Rolls) 19 Wateres he [sc. Engelond] haþ ek inouȝ, ac at uore alle oþere þre Out of þe londe in to þe se, armes as þei it be..Severne & temese; homber is þet þridde. a1300Cursor M. 5918 All þe waters on þis land Wex son in to blod red. c1400Mandeville xiv. (1839) 126 And he schal so passe the Wature, that ys cleped the Brace of seynt George, that ys an Arm of the See. 1542Boorde Dyetary x. (1870) 253 Standynge waters, the whiche be refresshed with a fresshe spryng, is commendable. 1580in Lanc. & Cheshire Wills (Chetham Soc.) I. 72, I have maid a lease of my capitall and chieffe messuages in lyttle Mearley [etc.]..with th'..waters, ffisshings, moores [etc.]..to Rauffe Tetlowe. 1604E. G[rimstone] D'Acosta's Hist. Indies ii. ii. 84 This region is wonderfully scorched and drie; and so by consequence, hath neither waters nor pastures. a1633G. Herbert Outlandish Prov. 434 Who letts his wife goe to every feast, and his horse drinke at every water, shall neither have good wife nor good horse. 169.Locke Educ. §7 Horace..assures us, he was wont in the Winter Season to bathe himself in cold Water. But perhaps Italy will be thought much warmer than England, and the chilness of their Waters not to come near ours in Winter. 1757[Burke] Europ. Settlem. Amer. vii. xxi. II. 235 Though the winters are sharp,..yet they are seldom severe enough to freeze any considerable water. 1828Duppa Trav. Italy, etc. 195 This whirlpool [Charybdis] is an agitated water, from seventy to ninety fathoms in depth, circling in quick eddies. 1836Hugh Murray, etc. China (Edinb. Cab. Libr.) I. i. 29 Along the lower course of both these magnificent waters [the Hohang⁓ho and Yang-tse-kiang]. 1843Penny Cycl. XXVII. 789/2 Zizania aquatica, Canadian Wild Rice,..is common in all the waters of North America from Canada to Florida. 1850R. G. Cumming Hunter's Life S. Afr. (ed. 2) I. 279, I inquired of the guides if they would lead me to waters in that direction. They all shouted that that was the desert, and that no man ever found water there. 1850Tennyson In Mem. lxvii, In thy place of rest By that broad water of the west. 1885Riverside Nat. Hist. (1888) II. 251 They frequent almost every variety of water, from the briny lakes of Utah and California to the clearest mountain-streams of our northern territories. 1898Edin. Rev. Jan. 192 Hundreds of the swallow family may sometimes be seen together, hawking for flies over the London waters on a fine April morning.
b. A sheet of water, a lake, pool. Cf. the proper names Derwentwater, Wastwater, Ullswater, Hawes Water, etc. in n.w. England.
c1250Gen. & Ex. 749 Nov ist a water of loðlic ble, Men callið it ðe dede se. a1300Cursor M. 13760 A water þar es wit-in þair thede Þat es cald piscene in þair lede. c1380Wyclif Serm. Sel. Wks. I. 301 Crist wandride bi þe water of Galile. c1386Chaucer Pars. T. (Harl.) 841 Seint Iohan saith þat aduoutris schuln be in helle in watir [Ellesm. in a stank; F. estanc; L. stagnum] brennyng of fuyr and of brimston. 1641J. Jackson True Evang. T. iii. 209 The other is two pots floting upon a pond, or surface of a water with this word, If we knock together, we sink together. 1655Walton Angler xiii. (1661) 197 The river Dee..springs in Merionnithshire, and as it runs toward Chester, it runs through Pemble-Mere, which is a large water. 1756T. Amory Buncle (1770) I. 204 A water on the top of a hill, which stood at the other end of the lake. 1799A. Young Agric. Lincoln 27 A large lawn, a water half a mile long, a very handsome bridge over it. 1842Tennyson Morte d'Arthur 12 On one side lay the Ocean, and on one Lay a great water, and the moon was full. 1896A. E. Housman Shropshire Lad xli, And like a skylit water stood The bluebells in the azured wood.
c. A stream, river. In early use often the water of (prefixed to the name of a river). Now chiefly Sc. and north.; often in the names of small rivers, as Water of Esk, Water of Leith, Allan Water, Moffat Water.
In MHG. and in early and dial. mod.G. wasser is used for ‘river’, often in apposition with the proper name. The frequent use in Coverdale's Bible (where 1611 has ‘riuer’) is prob. due to the influence of Luther's version.
c1290S. Eng. Leg., John Baptist 85 Toward þe watere of Jordan. 1297R. Glouc. (Rolls) 7654 Þer hii gonne abide Bi tuene þe water of trente & of ouse al so. Ibid. 8850 Bituene tueye wateres he rerde redinge [i.e. built Reading Abbey]. 1303R. Brunne Handl. Synne 10528 Þys batayle was, þurgh here boþe assent, Besyde a watyr, men calle Trent. 13..E.E. Allit. P. A. 107, I wan to a water by schore þat scherez. 1375Barbour Bruce vii. 5 The kyng..held doun toward a vale, Quhar throu the vod a vattir ran. 1387Trevisa Higden (Rolls) VI. 449 A monke..fil doun of a brigge into a water, and was i-stufled. 1390Gower Conf. II. 102 A stille water..Which hihte of Lethes the rivere. 1423Cov. Leet Bk. 46 From the watur of Schirburn, þat rennyth to Whitley vnto Hethesale. 1423in Reg. Mag. Sig. Scot. 1430, 30/2 Our fisching of the vater of Anand in al placis and be the see sid. c1450Brut ii. 427 The Erle of Armynacke with the dolfynys meyne..mette with the Duke of Clarence and his meyne by this watir of Leyre. 1532Cranmer Let. to Hen. VIII in Misc. Writ. (Parker Soc.) II. 233 Passaw, Lyntz, and other places adjoining to the waters of Enus and Danubius. 1535Coverdale Ps. cxxxvi[i]. 1 By the waters [1611 rivers] of Babilon we sat downe and wepte. ― Tobit vi. 1 Y⊇ first night they abode by the water of Tigris [Luther bei dem Wasser Tigris]. 1560J. Daus tr. Sleidane's Comm. 427 The king went up the water of Some. 1563–87Foxe A. & M. (1596) 1891/2 He answered that I was gone ouer a water. 1598Reg. Mag. Sig. Scot. 355/1 As the said burne rynnis north in the watter callit Dewquhilliegach. 1687A. Lovell tr. Thevenot's Trav. ii. 47 Near to this Town, runs a Water that passes under a Bridge of five Arches. 1721in W. Macfarlane Geogr. Collect. (S.H.S.) I. 44 Thorow this Parish runs the River Eugie Eastward, the Inhabitants there call it the water of Strichen. 1728Chambers Cycl. s.v. River, We must not omit here a water in Germany, which is ordinarily supposed to change iron into copper. 1761F. Sheridan Sidney Bidulph III. 184 He was drowned in crossing a deep water on horse back. 1793Heron Observ. Journ. W. Scot. I. 13 Within a little [we] found ourselves crossing the water of Leith. 1865Geikie Scen. & Geol. Scot. i. 18 Streams, intermediate in size between brooks and rivers, are known in Scotland as ‘waters’.
†d. Sc. and north. The banks of a river; the inhabitants of the district bordering on a river. (Eng. Dial. Dict.)
a1800Jamie Telfer xxv. in Child Ballads V. 250/2 Gar warn the water [cf. xxiv, water-side], braid and wide, And warn the Currers i the skaw. a1859Denham Tracts (1892) I. 313 The Coquet Water. The Northumbrians use the above expression in a peculiar sense; signifying thereby the district of the country immediately adjoining the river bearing that name.
13.
†a. sing. A flood. Obs.
b. pl. Floods: esp. in phrase the waters are out.
c1250Gen. & Ex. 592 Ðo was ilc on wer[l]de slaȝen, ðo gunnen ðe wateres hem wið-draȝen. 1470–85Malory Arthur i. xiii. 52 Ther blewe a grete wynde & blewe doun her castels and her townes, and after that cam a water and bare hit all awey. 1523Surrey in St. Papers Hen. VIII, IV. 44 By reason of the greate waters that was rysen with this rayne that fell thies 3 dayes paste. a1552Leland Itin. IV. ii. 191 a, Leaving Ottemor on the right Hand, that if the Waters had not beene up had beene the next waye. 1617Moryson Itin. ii. 74 Some were drowned passing the waters then very high. 1624Walter Diary (Camden) 77 The great army of Spinola before Breda,..was removed by God him self, who sent a great water and drowned his trenches, by means whereof he was enforced to remove. 1743E. Montagu Corr. (1906) I. 141 We were met..by a Messenger..to tell us the waters were out at Burroughbridge, and that we could not pass them. Ibid. 142, I..agreed to go on to the place he mentioned, and then send a messenger to see if the waters had fallen. 1853Dickens Bleak Ho. ii, The waters are out in Lincolnshire... The adjacent low-lying ground, for half a mile in breadth, is a stagnant river.
†14. Astr. The portion of the constellation Aquarius which is figured as a stream of water. [= L. Aqua, Gr. Ὕδωρ.] Obs.
1551Recorde Cast. Knowl. (1556) 267 Besyde these 22 starres, there are other 19, whiche in their dyuers and croked position doo make a forme of a Ryuer, and are called the Water whiche Aquarye sheddeth.
II.
15. The substance of which the liquid ‘water’ is one form among several; now known to be a chemical compound of two volumes of hydrogen and one of oxygen (formula H2O); in ancient speculation regarded as one of the four, and in pre-scientific chemistry as one of the five elements of which all bodies are composed.
971Blickl. Hom. 35 Ure lichoma wæs ᵹesceapen of feower ᵹesceaftum, of eorðan, & of fyre, & of wætere, & of lyfte. a1300[see earth n.1 14]. 1390Gower Conf. III. 92 Above therthe kepth his bounde The water, which is the secounde Of elementz. 1500–20Dunbar Poems x. 13 Fyre, erd, air, and watter cleir. 1549Compl. Scot. v. 33 This material varld that is maid of the four elementis, of the eird, the vattir, the ayr, ande the fyir. 1669W. Simpson Hydrol. Chymica 258 The like happens in all Vegetables, for Water is the material Principle of Vegetables. 1704J. Harris Lex. Techn. I, Water, which the Chymists call Phlegm, is the 4th of the 5 Chimical Principles, and one of the Passive ones. 1732A. Stewart in Phil. Trans. XXXVII. 330, I think the word (Spirits) was an unhappy Choice [to designate the nervous fluid]..And the simple Qualities of a pure and perfectly defecated elementary Water, will better suit all that our Senses can discover of it. 1812–16Playfair Nat. Philos. (1819) I. 235 On the different quantities of heat..united to the substance which we call water, depends its existence in the state of a solid, a liquid, or an elastic fluid. 1881Sir W. Armstrong in Nature 8 Sept. 450/2 Water, being oxidised hydrogen, must be placed in the same category as the earths.
III. A liquid resembling (and usually containing) water.
16. a. An aqueous decoction, infusion, or tincture, used medicinally or as a cosmetic or a perfume.
13..S. Eng. Leg. (MS. Bodl. 779) in Archiv Stud. neu. Spr. LXXXII. 311 Lechis also of flourus wateris makeþ I-lome & oþer þingus þat þer-to by-come. c1386Chaucer Can. Yeom. 906 What is Magnasia..? It is a water that is maad, I seye, Of elementes foure. 1523–34Fitzherb. Husb. § 46 There be dyuers waters, & other medicyns, that wolde mende hym [sc. a blind sheep]. a1533Ld. Berners Golden Bk. M. Aurel. (1546) I ij b, He wold washe his handes with very well smellyng waters. 1599–1600in Nichols Progr. Q. Eliz. (1823) III. 458 By Mr. William Goodres, two glasses of pretyous water. 1600Surflet Country Farm iii. lxxi. 600 A water vsed amongst the Ladies of the Court, to keepe a faire white and fresh in their faces: Take a white pigeon, a pinte of goats milke [etc.]. 1617J. Taylor (Water P.) Three Wks. Observ. D 3 b, Viols, Gallipots, Glasses, Boxes..where⁓in..were Waters, Oyles, Vnguents, [etc.]. 1654Whitlock Zootomia 57 Can cure all Diseases, from Aries, head and face, to Pisces, the Feet, with a Water and a Powder. 1662J. Davies tr. Olearius' Voy. Ambass. 298 They take Tobacco, and drink of a certain black water, which they call Cahwa [= coffee]. 1824L. M. Hawkins Annaline I. 255 When the pain was violent they spread light linen dipped in aromatic water over her throbbing temples. 1871Garrod Mat. Med. (ed. 3) 4 The waters of pharmacy consist of water holding in solution very small quantities of oils or other volatile principles.
b. With defining word, applied to liquid preparations of various kinds.
For illustration of the diversity of application, see cologne-water, lavender water, orange-flower-water, rose-water; barley-water, † chicken-water; baryta-water, gum-water, lime-water; lithia-water, potass water, soda-water.
c1407Lydg. Reson & Sens. 5737 Of tast also and of flauour It was swetter than watir rose A man in helthe to dyspose. a1425tr. Arderne's Treat. Fistula etc. 82 Þis is called watre of alum... And þis watre mundifieþ in coldand, bot watre of sulphur mundifieþ in hetyng or chaufand. a1440Sir Degrev. 1393 With..Watyr of everrose clere, They wesche ryȝth thare. 1477Norton Ord. Alch. v. in Ashm. (1652) 77 As Water of Litharge. 1502Priv. Purse Exp. Eliz. York (1830) 8 A present of watier of rooses. 1819J. G. Children Chem. Anal. 426 If water of barya be added to a solution of silicated potassa, the silica and barya fall down in combination. 1836–41Brande Chem. (ed. 5) 75 He..observed the rapidity with which baryta-water absorbs carbonic acid from the air. 1844Hoblyn Dict. Med. (ed. 2), Mastic Water. A remedy employed by the Albanian physicians in infantile diarrhœa; it is simply water which has been boiled along with mastic.
†c. A distilled alcoholic liquor, = strong water 2, † hot water 2. Also burning water (= med.L. aqua ardens, F. eau ardente), alcohol.
1460–70Bk. Quinte Essence 6 Haue biside ȝou a uessel..fillid ful of the beste brennynge watir þat ȝe may fynde. 1471Ripley Comp. Alch. v. xxiv. in Ashm. (1652) 154 What Salts, what Powders, what Oyles, and waters fort. 1624Capt. J. Smith Virginia v. 174 Some hauing some good and comfortable waters, fetched them and dranke one to another. 1789–96Morse Amer. Geog. II. 116 Rum, brandy, and other distilled waters.
†d. Contextually for strong water 1 = aquafortis. Also corrosive water, any strong acid.
1609J. Davies (Heref.) Holy Rood (Grosart) 4/1 Vpon the Crosse (as on a Touch) we may Trie our Soules value whether great, or small: If there, it (washt with Water-Strong) doth stay, We may be sure its most Angelicall. 1691Ray Creation i. (1704) 31 Aquafortis or the like corrosive Waters. 1736T. Atkinson Conf. Painter & Engraver 23 But the general Way [of Etching] is, to work the Offskip tenderly, letting the Water [called ‘aqua fortis’ above] bite but a little, and then [etc.].
17. a. Used to denote various watery liquids found in the human or animal body, either normally or in disease. † to run on a water, to discharge a watery liquid.
1533Elyot Cast. Helthe (1541) 83 b, Whan they [children] waxe elder, than be they greved with..wormes of the bealy, waters, swellynges under the chynne; &c. 1580Blundevil Curing Horses Dis. cxli. 61 b, Of the Crowne scab... The cronets will be alwaies mattering, and run on a water. 1643J. Steer tr. Exp. Chyrurg. iii. 7 Pustles doe arise, in the which is contained cleere and white water. 1801Monthly Mag. Feb. 40/2 The immediate cause of her death was found to be an accumulation of water on the chest. 1860Mayne Expos. Lex. s.v. Cotunnius, Water of Cotunnius, a peculiar fluid found within the membrane lining the vestibule and semi-circular canals of the internal ear.
b. water on (or † in) the brain, water in the head: hydrocephalus; cf. G. wasser im hirn, im kopf (haben). water on the knee: an excessive accumulation of fluid in the knee joint.
c1790in Jrnl. Friends Hist. Soc. (1918) 79 The D[ea]r Lamb was..taken of by a short illness of, the docter thaught Water on its Brain. 1806Med. Jrnl. XV. 133 The water in the brain was not, I believe, the immediate cause of death. 1852J. Savory Dom. Med. (ed. 4) 261 Water in the head is almost peculiar to infants, and chiefly to those of a scrofulous or rickety habit. 1861G. J. Whyte-Melville Good for N. iii, Some people thought he had gout in the stomach, others vowed it was water on the brain. 1890A. James Diary 7 Nov. (1965) 151 They [sc. the English] call water on the knee, fluid on the joint. 1902W. S. Churchill Let. 9 Oct. in R. S. Churchill Winston S. Churchill (1969) II. Compan. i. 167 He is laid up with Water on the Knee. 1976Liverpool Echo 6 Dec. 1/8 A lone Canadian sailor spent 17 days at sea clinging to his capsized trimaran before he was rescued suffering only from water on the knee.
c. The fluid contained in the amniotic cavity (liquor amnii); now usually pl. The effusion of this fluid from the womb, which precedes the exclusion of the fœtus, is popularly denoted by the expression ‘the waters have broken’.
1688Depos. Birth Pr. Wales 20 Whilst her Majesty was sitting trembling, her Water broke. 1754–64Smellie Midwifery II. 425 When the membranes broke, a large quantity of waters were discharged. 1880J. E. Burton Midwifery 27 The ‘waters’..are a whitish, muddy-looking liquid, the quantity of which greatly varies.
d. Tears. (So often in the Bible: see the concordances.)
1362Langl. P. Pl. A. v. 44 And made William to weope watur with his eȝen. 1390Gower Conf. I. 115 Ther was no wiht, if he hem syhe, Fro water mihte kepe his yhe. c1400Destr. Troy 7171 Care hade the kyng for Cassibilon his son,..Full tendurly with teris tynt myche watur. c1470Golagros & Gaw. 1131 The watter wet his chekis. 1562J. Heywood Prov. & Epigr. (1867) 217 His eyes ran a water. 1563–83Foxe A. & M. 1215/1 With that the water stoode in Marbeckes eyes, why weepest thou quoth the Gentleman? 1622in Foster Eng. Factories Ind. (1908) II. 52 [It] made the watter roune doune my checks to looke one them. 1840Dickens Old C. Shop vi, A dexterous rap on the nose with the key, which brought the water into his eyes.
e. Saliva; now only, flow of saliva provoked by appetite. † to set (a person's) teeth on water = ‘to make his mouth water’ (see mouth n. 2 c, water v. 12 ).
1598Florio, Tutto in sapore, louing earnestly, euen till ones teeth run a water. 1601Holland Pliny xxxiii. xi. II. 481 Their rich plate set their enemies teeth on water. 1655tr. Com. Hist. Francion iii. 74 He delighted it seemed, to eate that which was good, and rare before us, purposely to set our teeth on water. 1661Lovell Hist. Anim. & Min. 56 The water comming from the pallat mixed with honey and salt, rubbed on the head, &c. helpeth. 1685H. More Illustr. Daniel 334 Those fat and fair Objects that make Mens mouths run a-water so. 1830Cobbett Hist. Geo. IV, vi. §334 He has seen them flopping their jaws, the water running out of their mouths; and has seen them go through all the motions of devouring. 187.W. S. Gilbert ‘Bab’ Ballads, Etiquette 26 For the thought of Peter's oysters brought the water to his mouth.
† f. all on a water: covered with sweat. Obs.
1530Palsgr. 562/1 He hath gestylled my horse in the stabyll tyll he hath made hym all on a water [tant quil la mys tout en eaue].
g. The liquid of oysters.
c1430Two Cookery-bks. 13 Take grete Oystrys,..; an take þe water of þe Oystrys, & ale, an brede y-straynid.
18. esp. Urine. to make water [= F. faire de l'eau]: to urinate. to pass water (pass v. 50): to void urine (usually with reference to obstruction or the absence of it). to hold (one's) water: to retain urine.
1375Barbour Bruce xiii. 603 He leit thame nocht haf sic lasier As anys wattir for to ma. 1432–50tr. Higden (Rolls) I. 359 Mony men of that cuntre vse to make water and to send furthe theire vryne syttenge. 1535Coverdale 2 Kings ix. 8 And I wyl rote out from Achab, euen him that maketh water agaynst the wall. 1577Kendall Flowers Epigr. 46 The drinke his bladder burdened so, That he must let his water goe. 1580J. Hester tr. Fioravanti's Disc. Chirurg. 19 To helpe those that can-not hold their water. 1584B. R. tr. Herodotus ii. 97 b, Hys syght shoulde eftsoones bee restored agayne, if in case hee washed hys eyes in the water of a woman, whych [etc.]. 1591Shakes. Two Gent. iv. iv. 41. 1607 Topsell Four-f. Beasts 754 The nature of the wolfe both in making his water, as also in voyding his excrements is like vnto a Dogs. 1626Bacon Sylva §998 The Wound must be at first Washed cleane, with White Wine, or the Parties owne Water. 1719D'Urfey Pills III. 31 Come ye broken Maids that..can never hold your Water. 1786in J. Howard Lazarettos (1789) 195 No prisoner..shall..make water against any part of the building, under the penalty of forfeiting for each offence..four-pence. 1801Med. Jrnl. V. 409 Has been in this state three months; makes only three-quarters of a pint of water in 24 hours. 1860F. Nightingale Notes on Nursing 199 She will know the shiver which betrays the formation of matter—that which shows the unconscious patient's desire to pass water—that which precedes fever. 1884Thompson Tumours of Bladder 35 Case 34... Last four years much difficulty and pain in passing water;..Now passes water about every hour, day and night. 1885Bible (R.V.) 2 Kings xviii. 27 To drink their own water with you. 1897Allbutt's Syst. Med. IV. 281 The quantity of water voided by a healthy adult in 24 hours is from 40 to 50 ounces.
b. In references (at one time very common) to the inspection of a patient's urine as a means of diagnosis. (Cf. water-doctor.) Phrases, to † cast (cast v. 40), † look, † look in (a person's) water.
1377Langl. P. Pl. B. ii. 224 Thanne loured leches and lettres þei sent, Þat he shole wonye with hem wateres to loke. c1440Alphabet of Tales 41 A leche felid his powce & lukid his watir, bod he cuthe fynde no sekenes in hym. c1530Beauty & Gd. Prop. Women (facs.) C j, I haue shewid thy water to thy phesycyon. 1535Joye Apol. Tindale (Arb.) 22 But I wyll not be his Phisicion and decerne his water at this tyme. 1546J. Heywood Prov. i. xi. (1867) 33 By my faith you come to looke in my water. And for my comfort..Ye would, by my purs, geue me a purgacion. 1550Crowley Last Trumpet 826 And shewe by what right thou maist take Two pence for the sight of water, When thou knowest not therbi to make The sick man one farthinge better. 1562Child-Marr. (1897) 75 Sir Roberte sawe this respondentes water; & told hym he might be easilie holpen, & gave hym a drinke. 1597Shakes. 2 Hen. IV, i. ii. 2 Fal... What saies the Doct. to my water? Pag. He said sir, the water it selfe was a good healthy water; but for the party that ow'd it, he might haue more diseases then he knew for. 1600Rowlands Lett. Humours Blood vi, Heele looke vnto your water well enough. 1614Jackson Creed iii. 299 But what if some forreiner should of set purpose send a dead-mans water to trie this grand-Phisitions skill. 1625Hart Anat. Ur. i. ii. 28 They haue bene with them who haue told them wonders by the water. 1642Fuller Holy St. ii. ii. 53 The good Physician..trusteth not the single witnesse of the water if better testimony may be had. a1709J. Lister Autobiog. (1842) 43 The day after that I sent my water to a physician, who sent me word he could make no judgment of my case. 1712Addison Spect. No. 505 ⁋7, I can interpret their Dreams by seeing their Water. 1784Morn. Chron. 21 Apr. 1/3 Advt., Miss Mollitor..flatters herself that by seeing the water of the patient to tell if there be a cure or not.
†c. In fig. phrases, to attend, watch (a person's) waters [= G. einem das wasser besehen], to scrutinize his conduct rigorously. Obs.
1700T. Brown Amusem. Ser. & Com. iii. Wks. 1720 III. 36, I..judged he had been whipping it in with the Gentle⁓women before mentioned, tho' 'twas not convenient to tell him so, lest his Wife should watch his Waters more narrowly than she had done. 1706E. Ward Wooden World Diss. (1708) 9 What can we expect less in the succeeding Year, than that his great Proxy, the first Lieutenant, attend his Waters purely to prevent an Interregnum? 1709Mrs. Manley Secr. Mem. 151 Her Brother..was gone abroad..when this Rogue..courted her, or else he had never got his Will of her; he would have watch'd his Waters for him to some purpose.
19. Applied to vegetable juices.
1585Higins Junius' Nomencl. 142/2 Lachryma,..the water, moysture, or dropping of a tree that turneth to gumme. 1585T. Washington tr. Nicholay's Voy. i. viii. 8 b, Another frute..melteth in ones mouth, giuing a water as it were sugred. 1589Bigges Summarie Drake's W. Ind. Voy. 14 And within this white of the [cochos] nut lyeth a water, which is whitish and very cleere, to the quantitie of halfe a pint or thereabouts. 1697W. Dampier Voy. I. 292 While the Nut [sc. coco-nut] is growing, all the inside is full of this Water, without any Kernel. 1842Anne Pratt Pict. Catech. Bot. v. 79 [In the pitcher plant] the liquid is a clear water, very pleasant and refreshing to the palate.
IV. Appearances resembling water.
20. a. The transparency and lustre characteristic of a diamond or a pearl. The three highest grades of quality in diamonds were formerly known as the first water, second water, and third water; the phrase of the first water survives in popular use as a designation of the finest quality, often applied to jewels generally.[The equivalent use is found in all the mod. Rom. and Teut. langs.; it may have come from Arabic, where this sense of mā’, water, is a particular application of the sense ‘lustre, splendour’ (e.g. of a sword).] 1607Shakes. Timon i. i. 18 Jew. I have a Iewel heere... Mer. 'Tis a good forme. Jewel. And rich: heere is a Water looke ye. 1608― Per. iii. ii. 102. 1611 Cotgr., s.v. Eau, Perle de belle eau, of a faire luster, or water. Ibid. s.v. Esclat, Diamond de bon esclat,..a dyamond of a good luster, or water. 1622Malynes Anc. Law Merch. 75 The best waters are whitish, inclining to the blew, which maketh the best illustration and play, as some call it. 1667Phil. Trans. II. 429 If it [the Diamond] have no good water, or have a Bleb or Flaw, the Carat will not be worth but from 10 to 30 Crowns. 1675R. Vaughan Coin & Coinage 241 Value of Pearls. East India Yellow water. 1 Carrat 00 07 s. 6 d. Ibid. 242 A later Valuation..of the best Silver water. 1676Lond. Gaz. No. 1057/4 Lost.., one single Rose Diamond set in a Ring close shankt, and enameled with blew, a fair spread Stone clean and good water. 1678Ibid. No. 1330/4 A Table stone, cut in India, perfect square, of the Second water, weighing 5 grains full. 1698Fryer Acc. E. India & Persia 213 The Diamond that is Sandy, or hath any Foulness in it, or is of a Blue, Brown, or Yellow Water, is not worth half the Price of a perfect Stone of a White Water. 1718Lady M. W. Montagu Let. to C'tess of Mar 10 Mar., A vest..of purple cloth, straight to her shape, and thick set, on each side..with pearls of the best water. 1727A. Hamilton New Acc. E. Indies II. xlv. 148 They have small Diamonds, but their Waters being inclined to be yellow, are not so much in Esteem as those of Golcondah. 1732Fielding Miser v. iii, I defy any jeweller in town to show you their equals; they are, I think, the finest water I ever saw. 1753Chambers' Cycl. Suppl. s.v. Diamond, The first water in Diamonds means the greatest purity and perfection of their complexion, which ought to be that of the clearest drop of water. When Diamonds fall short of this perfection, they are said to be of the second or third water, &c. till the stone may be properly called a coloured one. 1832G. R. Porter Porcelain & Gl. 220 Some artists have even given to this [sc. paste in imitation of the diamond] a very considerable play of light, or, as it is technically termed, water. 1835Dickens Sk. Boz, Parish ii, He..wore a brilliant of the first water on the fourth finger of his left hand. 1910Ld. Rosebery Chatham i. 4 When Rondet, the royal jeweller, came from Paris to receive it [sc. a diamond], he criticised the water of the stone.
b. fig. of the first (occas. purest, rarest, finest) etc. water: originally (with implied comparison to a jewel), of the highest excellence or purity; now only following a personal designation (often of reproach) with the sense ‘out-and-out’, ‘thorough-paced’. [Similarly in Fr.]
1775London Mag. Nov. 556/2 She has an eye of that quick and brilliant water, that it penetrates and darts through the person it looks on. 1824Dibdin Libr. Comp. 587 Ascham is a thorough-bred philologist, and of the purest water. 1825T. Hook Sayings Ser. ii. Man of Many Fr. (Colburn) 95 He was certain her family were by no means of ‘the first water’. 1826Scott Jrnl. 6 Dec., He was a..swindler of the first water. 1836–7Sir W. Hamilton Metaph. (1870) II. xxix. 201 Gassendi himself, who is justly represented by Mr. Stewart as a sensationalist of the purest water. 1854H. Miller Sch. & Schm. xvi. (1858) 360 Cousin William..had a heart of the finest water. 1869Eng. Mech. 17 Dec. 329/3 All this may seem like paradoxism of the first water. 1883T. Watts in 19th Cent. Mar. 422 His wit, though not abundant and not of ‘the rarest water’ was quite unique. 1905W. B. Boulton Gainsborough 194 He..assumed the airs of a beau and lady⁓killer of the first water.
21. (See quot.) Cf. watered ppl. a. 5. [So G. wasser, F. eau.]
1721Bailey, Water (among Dyers), a certain Lustre imitating Waves, set on Silks, Mohairs, &c.
V.
22. a. = water-colour. b. pl. Water-colour paintings. colloq. (Cf. oil n.1 4, 4 b.)
1787Exhib. R. Acad. 17 Portraits of the Princess Royal, and Princess Augusta, in water. 1877Paper Hanger etc. 142 The best work for picture and looking-glass frames is done in water. 1909Daily Chron. 4 June 5/5, I want you to paint as many pictures as you can, oils or waters, just as you like.
VI.
23. The lap of one shingle in roofing.
1703R. Neve City & C. Purchaser 242 They commonly make 3 Waters, (as they phrase it,) that is, they commonly hang 3 shingles in heighth, in the length of one; so that if the Shingles are 12 Inches long, they are laid at 4 Inches Gage.
VII. attrib. and Comb.
24. Simple attributive uses.
a. Designating vessels in which water is held or kept, as water-bail, water-bowl, water-bucket, water-cruet, † water-fetles, water-flask, water-gourd, water-jar, water-jug, water-sack, † water-say, water-scoop, † water-skeet, water-skin, † water-stean, water tank, water-tin, water-trough, water-tub, † water-tun, water-vat, water-vessel. See also water-bottle, -glass, etc.
c1000Ags. Gosp. John ii. 6 Ðar wæron soðlice aset syx stænene wæter-fatu. c1200Ormin 14411 Þa sexe waterrfetless, Þatt stodenn wiþþ þatt waterr þær. c1386Chaucer Can. Yeom. Prol. & T. 681 And in the water vessel he it caste. 1387Trevisa Higden VI. 183 In a water stene [L. in hydria aquatica]. 1391Earl Derby's Exp. (Camden) 74 Pro portagio de watertonnes vsque manerium Episcopi. 1420in For. Acc. 3 Hen. VI G/2, j Waterbaille..vj Water-scoupes. 1459–60Durham Acc. Rolls (Surtees) 152 Cum opere carpentr. fact. circa molendinum de Shyncliff et leȝ Watertrowe. 1477–9Rec. St. Mary at Hill (1905) 82 For a watir payle, iij d. 1487–8Durham Acc. Rolls (Surtees) 651 Pro i fatt et i watersay. 1533MS. Rawlinson D. 776 fol. 136 b, ij flatt hooppis..for the water Tubbe. 1552Inv. Ch. Goods York etc. (Surtees) 66, ij watter bokettes of latyne. 1556Withals Dict. (1562) 47 b/2 A water tankerd, cadus aquarius. 1592Nashe P. Penilesse E 3 b, The water-tankard wil keepe vnder the insurrection of their shoulders. 1613W. Browne Brit. Past. i. ii. (1616) 31 And for the Maid that had perform'd each thing, She in the Water-paile bad leaue a Ring. 1615E. S. Britain's Buss B, Two water-skeits, to wet the sailes. 1667in Pettus Fodinæ Reg. (1670) 35 One new large Water-wheel with Water-troughs. 1773Exhib. R. Acad. 30 A horse tied to a water-trough, in a Farm-yard. 1779in Dict. Amer. Eng. (1944) IV. 2452/2, 2 water jugs. 1807R. Southey Lett. from England I. xiv. 161 A compact kind of chest holds the bason, the soap, the tooth brush, and water glass... The water-jug and water-bottle stand below. 1821Water-skin [see girba]. 1834Marryat P. Simple xli, I..set my first lieutenant to work getting in the ballast and water-tanks. 1842Dickens Amer. Notes ii, The water-jug is plunging and leaping like a lively dolphin. 1853J. D. H. Dale Cerem. Roman Rite 93 The Subdeacon elevates a little the water-cruet towards the Bishop. 1855Poultry Chron. II. 432 The price charged for these pens..will be 6s. 6d. each, complete, with wooden bottom, water tin, and separate cloth. 1864J. A. Grant Walk across Afr. 430 Here there is a bend in the Nile, and we were able to fill all our water-sacks afresh. 1867M. E. Herbert Cradle L. i. 8 Picturesque water-carriers with their water-skins. 1869Browning Ring & Bk. ix. 63 Clouted shoon, staff, scrip and water-gourd. 1886Ruskin Præterita I. iii. 106, I went head foremost into the large water-tub kept for the garden. 1894Outing June 172 Four or five rough-looking men..were clustered about the water-tank. 1920Water-tin [see souvenir v. 3]. 1922Joyce Ulysses 491 A man..passes..hugging a full waterjugjar. 1926D. H. Lawrence David xiv. 106 Here is the pouch and the water-flask. 1935C. Winchester Railway Wonders of World II. 933 There are eleven sets of water-troughs on the West Coast main line between Euston and Glasgow. 1960J. R. Ackerley We think the World of You 89 On the floor was Evie's water-bowl and the vegetable remains of her dinner of yesterday. 1967O. Ruhen in Coast to Coast 1965–6 193, I threw down my swag near the water-tank. 1970J. H. B. Peel Country Talk vi. 111 Water-troughs in far fields were tepid. 1974D. Sears Lark in Clear Air i. 20 We stopped at every gopher-hole and water-tank and badger-hill. 1979M. McMullen But Nellie was so Nice (1981) i. i. 12 She..filled Titania's water bowl, gave jealous George an extra stroking.
b. Pertaining to the storage or distribution of water in considerable quantities; as water-ditch, water-lock, † water-place, water-room, water-stank, water-station, water-well; water-meter, † water-purveyance, water-service, water-storage, water-supply.
a1300Cursor M. 11677 Vr water purueance es gan, And in þis wildernes es nan. 1473Rental Bk. Cupar-Angus (1879) I. 189 Water-stankis..of sic depnes that ged eyls and fyscis..ma be..kepit. 1670Blount Glossogr. (ed. 3), Water-lock, a watering place fenced with walls, rails, or bars, &c. 1703W. Dampier Voy. III. i. 88 The Governor very kindly sent an Officer to clear the Water-place for my Men. 1735in Trans. Cumberld. & Westm. Antiq. Soc. (N.S.) XX. 172 Taking water for the use of their families out of the water ditch in the said meadow. 1809Kendall Trav. II. xlvi. 132 The water is led by troughs into a range of vats or rooms, distinguished by the name of water-rooms. 1815Pocklington Canal Act 4 Pens for water, water-stanks, dams. 1840H. S. Tanner Canals & Rail Roads U.S. 263 Water stations, places where locomotives obtain their supplies of water. 1848W. W. Lloyd in Numism. Chron. XI. 114 The local water-service. 1849J. Simon City Medical Rep. No. 1, in E. R. Pike Human Documents of Victorian Golden Age (1967) 280 It may be doubted, too, whether..the tenants' water supply can be pronounced good. 1858Simmonds Dict. Trade, Water-meter, an instrument for registering the supply of water. 1872Routledge's Ev. Boy's Ann. July 500/2 A terrible year of water-famine. 1885Weekly Notes 28 Mar. 67/2 The house had become uninhabitable through failure of the water-supply. 1890A. R. Wallace Darwinism 23 The absence of rivers or water-storage. 1907Q. Rev. Oct. 391 Where the water-rights of villages and small towns are..threatened. 1921Review of Reviews Aug. 157/2 Hardships of desert travelling, when great gulfs of distance lie between one water well and another. 1976Billings (Montana) Gaz. 30 June 5-d/1 (Advt.), Water well drilling.
c. Used for the carriage or transport of water, as water barge, water boat, water ship, water tender, water truck; water animal, water mule.
1727A. Hamilton New Acc. E. Ind. I. xxviii. 346 He built some Water Boats,..and, by these Boats furnished the Garison with good Water. 1805Collingwood 18 Oct. in Nicolas Disp. Nelson (1846) VII. 127 note, I shall be glad to see the Water-Ships as many of the Fleet are getting low. 1898Daily News 3 May 8/3 The baggage and water animals. 1900Ibid. 17 Mar. 7/4 Indians, with their plucky and clever little water-mules, were ordered right up into the firing line. 1918Qua Iboe Mission Quarterly Feb. 121/2 Water-barges to replenish our tanks were soon alongside. 1957G. V. Blackstone Hist. Brit. Fire Service xxv. 443 The evolution of the water tender from the mobile dam unit produced to deal with the water shortages at air-raid fires. 1958P. Scott Mark of Warrior ii. 122 The water truck rendezvoused. Most of the chaps' bottles were empty. 1976Billings (Montana) Gaz. 6 July 8–a/2 The county water truck was dispatched at 4.09 p.m... The truck was refilled with water, before the fire was controlled. 1978Dumfries Courier 13 Oct. 17/4 Two water tenders from Dumfries brought the blaze under control.
d. Designating a channel in which water runs, or any contrivance for facilitating or regulating its flow, as water-channel, water-cock, † water-conduct, water-conduit, water-cut, water-cutting; water-dam, water-gutter, water-main, water-port, water-sewer, water-squirt, water-tap, † water-trunk, † water-wising. See also watercourse, -furrow, etc.
a1300Cursor M. 11942 Þe water wissing can he ditt Þat water to þe lak broght. c1450Godstow Reg. 44 A plase to make an hede of her water cundit. 1535Coverdale Nahum ii. 6 The water portes [1611 the gates of the rivers; Luther die Thore der Wasser] shal be opened and the kinges palace shall fall. 1577–87Holinshed Chron. III. 1186/1 Not forgetting to make a water-conduit for the ease of washing. 1596Dalrymple tr. Leslie's Hist. Soc. (S.T.S.) I. 42 Thay lay in the furdes and waterdames. 1598R. Bernard tr. Terence, Phormio iv. iv. (1607) 432 A snake fel from the tyles through the water gutter. 1600J. Pory tr. Leo's Africa (1896) II. 402 So soon as the said water-conduct was derived unto the Towne, he caused it to be divided. 1662Atwell Faithf. Surveyor 95 The water-squirt which will throw a whole hogs-head of water to the top of a house at once. 1764Museum Rust. II. 234 To bestow a watering on my fields, by means of water-trunks, immediately after my first crop of hay is got off. 1803W. Tatham Rep. Impediments Thames 71 At this place there is a water-main which crosses over to the Middlesex shore. 1833Loudon Encycl. Archit. §16 A water-cock and wash-hand-basin. 1846Comic Almanack (1870) 91 The common water-plug offers a capital medium for illustrating the leading principles in hydrostatics and hydraulic. 1862E. Hodder Memories N.Z. Life 117 We were glad to..lie down closely together in one of the dry water-cuttings. 1880J. Dunbar Pract. Papermaker 47 Connect the other end of the pipe to the nearest water-tap. 1883W. C. Russell Sailors' Lang., Water-ports, openings in a ship's bulwarks to free the deck of water. 1902Cornish Naturalist Thames 9 Down every ditch, runnel, and water-cut, the turbid waters were hurrying. 1914Blackw. Mag. Dec. 780/1 Fields of young wheat and barley intersected by water-channels.
e. Designating a machine which is worked or driven by water, a part of a machine in which water is heated, a contrivance for drawing or circulating water, and the like; as water-back, water-barrel, water-bellows, water-blast, water-box, water-chamber, † water-corn-mill, water-drum, water-feed, water-gin, † water-grist-mill, † water-motion, water-motor, water-trap, water-trompe, water-turbine, water-whim.
1580Durham Wills (Surtees) II. 32 All my interest in the water corne mylne and farmehold in Kirklawe. 1660R. Dacres Elem. Water-drawing Pref., The innumerable shapes, and various forms and fashions of Water-Gins. 1661[T. Powell] Hum. Industry 35 De Aquaticis Machinis, Of Water Motions. 1725in Lancs. & Cheshire Wills (Chetham Soc.) I. 178 A wattercorn Milln called Accorinton Milln. 1763in Smiles Engineers (1861) I. 359 note, At the mouth of the cavern is erected a water-bellows. 1786T. Jefferson Writ. (1859) II. 12 A water-grist mill for grinding the corn of the neighborhood. 1819Rees Cycl., Water-Bellows,..a machine used to blow air into a furnace, by the action of a column of water falling through a vertical tube. 1824R. Stuart Hist. Steam Engine 47 The pipe, 1, connects the air-chamber, a, with the inner water-chamber, a. 1833T. Sopwith Mining Distr. Alston Moor 131 The water blast..consists of a wooden pipe placed in a shaft, and down which a stream of water is kept running, while a quantity of fresh air is carried with it. 1839H. T. De la Beche Rep. Geol. Cornwall, etc. xv. 572 Water-whims..are seldom employed in western Cornwall. 1875J. H. Collins Metal Mining 122 Sent down by means of a fan blower, steam jet, turbine, or a water-trompe. 1875Knight Dict. Mech., Water-back, a permanent reservoir at the back of a stove or range, to utilize the heat of the fire in keeping a supply of hot water. Ibid., Water-barrel (Mining), a large wrought-iron barrel with a self-acting valve in the bottom, used in drawing water where there are no pumps. 1876Encycl. Brit. IV. 688/1 In this machine there are two water-boxes. Ibid. 468/1 It is from the drying up of the fluid in water-traps that uninhabited houses are so frequently offensive. 1877Wood Nature's Teach. 463 The Water Turbine. 1881Encycl. Brit. XII. 520/1 Water motors may be divided into water-pressure engines, water wheels, and turbines. 1884Lock Workshop Rec. Ser. iii. 388/1 The draught is sometimes kept up by..a water-drum, an apparatus which sucks in air by means of the friction of a jet of water. 1914Chambers's Jrnl. May 334/2 The..lamp..works automatically, the water-feed to the carbide being drop by drop.
f. Designating implements or contrivances used in or on the water, as water-cord, water-dress, water-staff, water-stang.
c1570Durham Depos. (Surtees) 263 The said William Sander..dyd..smite at this deponent with a water staff, suche as fishermen hangs ther nett upon. 1866in Bompas Life Buckland viii. (1886) 163 My water-dress put on, the nets and cans, &c. packed, we started in a carriage. 1878Cumberld. Gloss., Watter stang, a pole fixed across a stream in lieu of a bridge or fence. 1904W. M. Gallichan Fishing Spain 73 A fifty-yard length of water-cord that I had in the bag.
g. Designating (a) a water-tight contrivance, as water-joint, water-packer; (b) a body of water which makes a vessel air-tight or gas-tight, as water-lute, water-luting, water-seal.
1837Civil Engin. & Arch. Jrnl. I. 12/1 Both surfaces..fit into each other, and form a perfectly secure water-joint. 1841S. Clegg Treat. Coal-Gas 111 This arch-pipe is made of thin plate-iron, sealed at each end by a water-joint. 1844H. Stephens Bk. Farm II. 206 The shallow water-luting, formed by the marginal groove. 1877G. E. Waring Sanitary Conditions City & Country Houses 31 These gases..have..the power of passing almost unretarded and unchanged through the water-seal traps. Ibid. 36 The water-seal is a trap in more senses than one. 1881Raymond Mining Gloss., Water-packer, a water-tight packing of leather between the pipe and the walls of a bore-hole. 1884Century Mag. Dec. 259/1 The trap..depends for its efficiency on the permanence of its water-seal. 1917Chamb. Jrnl. Dec. 831/2 A water-seal renders the joint air-tight.
h. Designating substances which harden under water and so become impervious to it, as water-cement, water-lime, water-mortar. Cf. hydraulic a. 3.
1793Smeaton Edystone L. §198 The hardening of water-mortar. Ibid. §212 A proper Water-Cement. Ibid., A very competent Water Lime. 1847G. A. Smeaton Builder's Man. 34 The Roman is the most valuable of all water-cements. 1868Rep. U.S. Commissioner Agric. (1869) 377 The making of hydraulic cements, (water-limes,) mastics, &c.
i. Prepared with water, as water-size, water-starch. Of articles of diet: Prepared with water (instead e.g. of milk); mixed or diluted with water; as water-biscuit, water-broo (Sc.), water-brose (Sc.), water-broth, water-cider, water-fritters, water-kail (Sc.), † water-meat, water-pap, water-porridge, water-pottage, water-saps (Sc.; see sop n.1), water-tansey; water-toast. Also water-gruel, -ice1.
13..S.E. Leg. (MS. Bodl. 779) in Archiv Stud. neu. Spr. LXXXII. 335 A lytil water-potage he ete. c1480Henryson Wolf & Lamb 140 To leif vpon dry breid and watter caill. 1572Satir. Poems Reform. xxxiii. 262 Glaid to get Peis breid and watter Caill. c1610Women Saints 26 But to her self being sicke, she was still rigorous, hardlie admitting a little wine, with her water-meates. 1630Dekker 2nd Pt. Honest Wh. D 1 b, As arrant a whore as euer stiffned tiffany neck-cloathes in water-starch. a1648Digby Closet Opened (1669) 120 Doctor Harvey's pleasant Water-cider, whereof he used to drink much. 1683J. Reid Scots Gard. (1907) 172 Leaving the dreg behind (the which may go among the pressings for water-cyder). 1747H. Glasse Cookery ix. 81 Water Fritters. Ibid. 104 A Water Tansey. 1786Burns To J. Smith xxiv, I'll sit down o'er my scanty meal, Be't water-brose, or muslin-kail, Wi chearfu' face. 1789W. Buchan Dom. Med. (1790) 17 It will then be proper to give it..a little of some food that is easy of digestion, as water-pap, milk-pottage. 1797Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3) VII. 739/2 A water-size..prepared by boiling cuttings of parchment or white leather in water. 1816Scott Old Mort. xiv, We got some water-broo and bannocks. 1816― Bl. Dwarf vi, ‘All clear away, with the water-saps and panada,’ returned the unabashed convalescent. 1838A. Langton Jrnl. in Gentlewoman Upper Canada (1950) 80 This morning the same party assembled to tea, coffee, and water porridge—a great favourite with most of the backwoodsmen. 1843Ainsworth's Mag. V. 60 My dinner was pudding or pastry, and if these failed, there was a substitute known by the name of water-toast... A slice of bread was toasted, and dipped..in boiling water, and then buttered and sugared. 1848Geo. Eliot Let. 8 Mar. (1954) I. 255 The sympathy in Ireland seems at present only of the water toast kind. 1854Surtees Handley Cr. xxxix. (1901) II. 30 Mr. Jorrocks..had looked in vain for a water-biscuit. 1947W. de la Mare Coll. Stories for Children 61 A bowl of water-porridge, using up for it the last pinch of meal.
j. Pertaining to water as a beverage, or as a (teetotal) article of diet, as † water-day, water-diet, water-doctrine, † water-drink, water-time; relating to the use of water in medical treatment, as water-dressing, water-patient, water strapping; also water-cure.
c1000Vercelli MS. 112 b, in Napier O.E. Lexicogr. 67 & sæde eac þæt man mid wæter-drinces sylene mihte him mycele ælmessan ᵹedon. c1200Ormin 14482 Alls iff þu drunnke waterr drinnch Ut off þe firrste fetless. 14..in Aungier Syon (1840) 393 On water dayes sche schal ordeyne for bonnes or newe brede, water grewel, albreys, [etc.]. 1842R. T. Claridge Hydropathy 282 Directly he commenced this water diet, all his complaints disappeared one by one. 1846Lytton Conf. Water-patient 17 The regular life which water-patients lead. Ibid. 68 Water-dressings are found the best poultice to an inflamed member. 1854Thackeray Leech's Pict. Wks. 1900 XIII. 484 George..has taken to the water-doctrine, as all the world knows. 1857Dunglison Med. Lex., Water-dressing, the treatment of wounds and ulcers by the application of water. It generally consists in dipping folds of lint in water, and placing them on the part... Water strapping or wet strapping means the treatment of ulcers,..&c., with strips of linen or cotton saturated with water. 1925R. Graves Welchman's Hose 9 Our feeding and our water-time, Our breeding and our slaughter-time.
k. Pertaining to water as a physiographical feature or factor, as water-action, † water-brim, water-depths, water-drainage, water-edge, water-flow, † water-ground, water-land, water-point, † water-rim, water-scene, water-shore, water-strand, water-view.
In many of these combinations the first element is equivalent to the genitive water's, and in early and dial. examples the sense may often be ‘pertaining to the specified ‘water’’ (i.e. lake, river, etc.: see senses 12 a, b, c).
c1220Bestiary 365 Alle þe oðre cumen mide, and..beren him of ðat water grund up to ðe lond al heil and sund. a1300Cursor M. 4779 Jacob yode walcand be þe nile; He sagh a-pon þe watur reme Caf flettand dunward [with] þe strem. 13..Metr. Hom. (Vernon MS.) in Archiv Stud. neu. Spr. LVII. 289 Þis hermyt sat by a water brimme. 1390Gower Conf. I. 81 Whan the blake wynter nyht..Bederked hath the water Stronde. 1589Fleming Virg. Bucol. v. 15 Watershores and banks (bedasht) and beaten with the flouds. 1792A. Young Trav. France (1794) I. 17 The water-scenes from the town itself..are delicious. 1799Robertson Agric. Perth 454 Chains of lakes, finely wooded down to the water-edge. 1811W. H. Marshall Rev. Rep. to Board Agric. from Eastern Dept. Eng. 10 The term Water-Lands may be deemed a solecism. But when it represents lands that have not only been formed by water, but are liable to be annihilated, and their place reoccupied, by the same element—it is surely allowable as a Technical Term, to convey a joint idea of ‘Fens’ and ‘Marshes’. 1813Southey Nelson I. 19 It could not be possible to get the boats to the water edge before the fourteenth. 1826Cobbett Rur. Rides (1885) II. 247 To those who like water-scenes..it is the prettiest spot..in all England. 1830Lyell Princ. Geol. I. 175 The water drainage of the country. 1854‘Grace Greenwood’ Haps & Mishaps 10 Seaforth Hall, an elegant seaside residence..Here I saw a pleasant water-view. 1856Kane Arctic Expl. II. xv. 158 A striated face, whose scratches still indicated the line of water-flow. Ibid. App. ii. 309 The coast-ice..had been completely destroyed by thaw and water-action. 1865Lond. Rev. 30 Dec. 686/2 As the fisher saw the buried city in the waterdepths. 1901Scotsman 4 Mar. 10/1 The streams, being small, with a rapid descent from very high land, are subject to much fluctuation of waterflow. 1946U. Krige Way Out xv. 194 They were taken by the Germans at the water-point. 1954J. R. R. Tolkien Two Towers iv. 79 The Entwives..saw the..green herbs in the waterlands in summer. 1964J. Hillaby Journey to Jade Sea 167 The Balessa Kulal, a famous water-point farther down the lugga.
l. Consisting of, holding or containing, formed or caused by, water; as water-blowball, † water-breath, water-breeze, water-brook, water-chasm, water-cloud, water-column, † water-draught, water-drip, water-fence, water-flow, water-foam, water-fount, water-gush, water-leak, water-mist, water-passage, † water-plash, water-race, water-ring, water-ripple, water-run, water-slide, water-song, water-sphere, water-spray, water-spread, † water-sprinkle, water-stripe (Sc.), water-surface, water-swirl, water-talk, † water-vein, water-wash, water-wear, water-world.
a1300Cursor M. 5620 In þis kist þe barn sco did. Quen it spird was wit þe lid,..Sco laid it on þe water fame. c1390St. Michael 629 Alle huy [sc. rain, snow, mist, etc.] comiez of water-breth þat þe sonne drauȝth up. 1529Conventual Lease, Yorks. 1190 (P.R.O.), Asmoch grounde..as to make a sufficient dame apon to gedir water and water draught to the said dame. 1531Nottingham Rec. III. 370 The water-wessh bytwen Samon Pasture and Trentt. 1535Coverdale Ps. xli[i]. 1 Like as the hert desyreth the water brokes. 1585Higins Junius' Nomencl. 401/2 Torrens,..a water plash. 1596Spenser F.Q. iv. iii. 25 From the same the fierie sparkles flasht, As fast as water-sprinkles gainst a rocke are dasht. 1601Reg. Mag. Sig. Scot. 418/2 Ane watter strype quhilk rynnis at the north syde of the said mure. 1610Holland Camden's Brit. i. 532 A fairer towne than a man would looke to finde..among such slabbes and water-plashes. c1611Chapman Iliad xxi. 241 As a man that finds a water vaine. 1634Brereton Trav. (Chetham Soc.) 61 The channel or water-passage leading from Amsterdam to Utrecht. 1707Mortimer Husb. (1721) II. 202 Their Gardens lie all open, where Prospects may be had, and Water-fences can be made. 1771Ann. Reg. 90/2 For..filling up upwards of 200 yards of the said water-race. 1813Scott Trierm. iii. xxviii, When, lo! a plashing sound he hears, A gladsome signal that he nears Some frolic water-run. 1818Byron Ch. Har. iv. xviii, A fairy city..Rising like water-columns from the sea. 1818Keats Endym. iii. 101 Thou hast sent A moon-beam to the deep, deep water-world, To find Endymion. c1820S. Rogers Italy (1839) 77 Those Porches passed, thro' which the water-breeze Plays. 1852J. Wiggins Embanking 94 Such water-fences and drains must..be drawn all around the intake. c1865G. M. Hopkins Poems (1967) 122 When lily-yellow is the west. Say, o'er it hangs a water-cloud And ravell'd into strings of rain. 1869Blackmore Lorna D. xix, I came to remember the steepness and the slippery nature of the water-slide. 1869R. B. Smyth Gold Fields Victoria 548 Table showing the Length of Water-races constructed. 1869Bradshaw's Railway Man. XXI. 242 The dock..measures 600 feet in length and 300 in width, giving an area of water surface of upwards of four acres. 1876‘Mark Twain’ Tom Sawyer xxxiii. 260 It was the treasure-box..occupying a snug little cavern, along with..some..rubbish well-soaked with the water-drip. 1879Prescott Sp. Telephone 48 A stone dropped into a pond, throws off a succession of circular undulations or water rings. 1884Leisure Hour June 344/2 One of the finest of the many picturesque water-chasms of Norway. 1887E. D. Morgan in Proc. R. Geogr. Soc. IX. 214 Lake Koko-nor, a magnificent water-spread 10,800 feet above the sea. 1887Essex Weekly News 11 Mar. 7/1 A small brick archway..which crosses a waterflow known as the Puddle Dyke. 1888G. M. Hopkins Poems (1967) 198 All in froth and water-blowballs. 1904W. de la Mare Henry Brocken vi. 59 Ears that have heard only..dismal water-songs, and the yelp and quarrel and night-voice of unseen hosts in the forests. 1905A. R. Wallace My Life I. 250 Perpendicular rocks with no sign of water-wear. 1916Blunden Pastorals 30 Mocked by the white wings of the water-swirl. 1920J. Masefield Enslaved 34 The melancholy water-drip alone Broke silence near me. 1921W. de la Mare Veil 32 Ice on the waterbrooks their clear chimes dumbing. 1922Joyce Ulysses 698 A rockery with waterspray. 1928Blunden Undertones of War ix. 98 Ahead, the German front line could not be clearly seen, the water-mist and the smoke veiling it. 1928E. Sitwell Five Poems 4 The water-ripples like mosaics gold. 1935W. Stevens in Southern Rev. I. 80 The statue stood in stars like water-spheres. a1944K. Douglas Alamein to Zem Zem (1946) 52 Few Crusader tanks would run for more than two days in action without developing either an oil-leak or a water-leak. 1952L. MacNeice Ten Burnt Offerings x. 60 The water-talk ends; the scrawl on the sky Smudges and fades. 1954J. Betjeman Few Late Chrysanthemums 66 Back into what a water-world Of waving weed and waiting claws? 1955E. Pound Classic Anthol. ii. 113 Naught stands higher than mount, Nor is hollow deeper than water-fount. a1957R. Campbell Coll. Poems (1960) III. 19 Amidst dead calms collapsing water-gushes, And distances cascading to the deeps. 1961K. Reisz Technique Film Editing (ed. 9) ii. 137 Tiny bugs skim over the water-surface. 1967Jane's Surface Skimmer Systems 1967–68 14/1 The vehicle has been used primarily for testing over land, water and ice, to investigate..seaworthiness, water spray problems, [etc.]. 1977Daily Tel. 9 July 12 Lands where hearts desire the waterbrooks and wells are of crucial importance. 1984A. C. & A. Duxbury Introd. World's Oceans iv. 120 Water molecules arrange themselves at any water surface to form a weak elastic membrane.
m. Situated or built on or beside water, as water-beacon, water-brae, water-bridge, water-castle, water-door, water-doorway, water-frontage, † water-stable, water-stair(s), water-steps, † water-tack. Also water-front.
1445in Parker Dom. Archit. (1859) III. 79 At Shene the water-brigge. 1603Reg. Mag. Sig. Scot. 499/1 Lie girs of the watter bray. 1608Machin Dumb Knt. i. B 3, Why Orators wiues shortly will bee knowne like images on water staires, euer in one wetherbeaten suite. 1623North Riding Rec. (N.S.) II. 10 None ys to repare any water Beakon but such as is subject to the Admirald Court. 1670Milton Hist. Eng. vi. 255 A third excursion they [sc. the Danes] made,..and..return'd..like wild Beasts or rather Sea-monsters to thir Water-stables. 1751C. Labelye Westm. Bridge 18 Every Pier, Abutments, and Water-Stairs. 1837H. Martineau Soc. Amer. II. 23 The land is divided into long, narrow strips, that each lot may have a water frontage. 1899R. Barr C'tess Tekla iii. 37 The boatman..propelled the skiff through the water-doorway. Ibid. vi. 68 Bid him instantly to take you in his boat to the water-steps of the Palace. 1903Kipling Five Nations, Explorer 51, I..Counted leagues of water-frontage through the axe-ripe woods that screen 'em. 1906Crockett White Plumes Navarre xviii. 133 Cautiously..Madame Granier had peered through the thick grille of the water-door before admitting the Professor. 1920T. S. Eliot Ara Vos Prec 15 Princess Volupine extends A meagre, blue-nailed, phthisic hand to climb the waterstair.
n. Performed, conducted, taking place, on or in the water; as water-ballet, water-excursion, water-fight, water-life, water-motion, water-music, water-pageant, water-song, water-sonnet, water-sports, etc.
1607T. D. & G. Wilkins Jests 11 [He] demanded..wherefore all those Barges (like so many Water-pageants) were caryed vp and downe so gaylie with Flags and Streamers? 1634W. Wood New Eng. Prosp. (1865) 22 Seeing the Beares take water, an Indian will leape after him, where they goe to water cuffs for bloody noses. 1670Milton Hist. Eng. ii. 35 In such a various, and floating water-fight as was to be expected. a1700Evelyn Diary 10 Nov. 1644, Refresh'd with water-musiq, aviaries, and other rarities. Ibid. 29 Oct. 1662, I saw the Lord Maior passe in his water triumph to Westminster. 1749H. Walpole Let. to Mann 17 May, A concert of water-music. 1801Strutt Sports & Pastimes iii. i. 92 A representation of the water quintain..is given upon the tenth plate. 1817Kirby & Sp. Entomol. xxii. II. 295, I shall not now enlarge on all these kinds of water-motion. 1835Dickens Sk. Boz, River, We have been on water excursions out of number. 1865W. White East. Eng. I. 86 About a dozen yachts have already arrived in readiness for the morrow's ‘water frolic’, which is a term much used by Norfolkians to signify a regatta. 1886Daily News 20 Dec. 5/6 A small landscape dotted about with figures representing a water-picnic. 1888Water-music [see paddling vbl. n.2]. 1888L. A. Smith Music of Waters 83 The verses and tune of this water-song..follow. 1892Water-pageant [see bargemaster]. 1894H. Drummond Ascent Man 106 At one time there was nothing else in the world but water-life. 1920L. & N. Sheffield Swimming Simplified viii. 150 Water sports afford a varied source of amusements. 1940L. MacNeice Last Ditch 9 And as the twilight filtered on the heather Water-music filled the air. 1944Blunden Shells by Stream 7 Trilling still with finch or lark Or water-sonnet. 1948T. Wilder Ides of March ii. 143 When the water-ballet was ended, Caesar's party rose to go in search of the Queen. 1968Water ballet [see synchronized ppl. a.]. 1976National Observer (U.S.) 30 Oct. 3/3 We enjoy water sports. 1976Evening Post (Nottingham) 15 Dec. 1 Mr Michael Hammond said he had not received a reply from the County Council to an offer of assistance in organising a water pageant on the day of the Queen's visit. 1979Tucson Mag. Apr. 57/1 There are..dance exercises, water ballet classes, separate massage facilities and other services. 1980Early Music Jan. 50/1 It seems likely that Weiss, Buffardin, and Hebenstreit provided ‘water music’ for the royal couple on the barge.
o. Pertaining to transit or transport by water, as water-communication, water-highway, water-route, water-traction.
1785J. Phillips Treat. Inland Nav. p. vi, Inland districts..which had no opportunity..of a water-communication. 1816Tuckey Narr. Exped. R. Zaire iv. (1818) 159 It [Banza Congo] has no water communication with the Zaire. 1868Ruskin Arrows of Chace (1880) II. 199 The carriage..may..be done by water-traction and sailing vessels. 1886Pop. Sci. Monthly Mar. 586 (Cass. Suppl.) The water-route is free to all. 1898F. I. Antrobus tr. Pastor's Hist. Popes VI. 230 note, The improvement of the water-highway on the Tiber and the Anio.
p. Living or occupied on the water; faring by water; as water-guide, water-people, water-police. Also, found on the water, as water-brother, water-stray, water-wayfarer.
1552Huloet, Waterguide, conuector. a1676Hale De jure maris v. in Hargrave Tracts (1787) 23 His [the water⁓baillie's] business was, to look to the king's rights, as his wrecks, his flotsan, jetsan, water-strays, royal fishes. c1826Pollok in D. Pollok Life (1843) 300 The Baijus—wandering water-gipsies on the eastern seas. 1848Sinks of Lond. 129 Water pads, fellows who rob ships. 1893Lady Burton Life Sir R. F. Burton II. 60 Hasan Hammad..is now sergeant to the water-police. 1897Hinde Congo Arabs 157 The Waginia, who are the water-people, and do all the transport on the river. 1923D. H. Lawrence Birds, Beasts & Flowers 99 Fishes..Outsiders. Water-wayfarers. 1965Auden About House (1966) 16, I should like To be to my water-brethren as a spell Of fine weather.
q. Designating fabulous beings that live in, or have rule over, water; as water-deity, water-demon, water-devil, water-elf, water-fairy, water-fay, water-fiend, water-ghost, water-goblin, water-god, water-kelpie, water-king, water-nixie, water-shape, water-spirit, water-sprite, water-wraith. Also water-horse, -nymph.
a1625Fletcher Chances iv. ii, Get me a conjurer, One that can raise a water Devil. 1702Addison Dial. Medals ii. Wks. 1766 III. 105 We see abundance of Water-Deities on other Medals. 1742R. Forbes Jrnl. to Portsmouth (1755) 30 You wou'd hae taen me for a water-wreath, or some gruous ghaist. 1785Burns Addr. Deil 69 Then water-kelpies haunt the foord, By your direction. 17..Logan in Ritson Sc. Songs (1794) I. 155 Thrice did the water-wraith ascend, And gave a doleful groan thro' Yarrow. 1798Coleridge Anc. Mar. 155 As if it dodged a water-sprite, It plunged and tacked and veered. 1819J. R. Drake Culprit Fay xv, He banned the water-goblins' spite. 1819Scott Ivanhoe xxv, A water-fiend hath possessed the fair Saxon. 1825― Betrothed xxxi, The statue of a water-god bending over his urn. 1859Geo. Eliot A. Bede xxii, Water-nixies, and such lovely things without souls. 1869Ruskin Q. of Air i. §12 Myriads of other water spirits, of whom Nereus is the chief. 1871Tylor Prim. Cult. xv. II. 191 In Australia, special water-demons infest pools and watering-places. 1878O. Wilde Ravenna 5 And down the river, like a flame of blue, Keen as an arrow flies the water-king. 1916Blunden Pastorals 32 That you shall come upon the water-fays. 1925― English Poems 90 The water-shapes steal towards his gonging drone. 1928Oxford Poetry 10 Many strong men had passed the ford, nor known the presence of that jeering water-ghost Denying their true conquest of the stream.
†r. Occas. used to designate freshwater, as opposed to saltwater, objects; as water-fish, water-land, water-sand. (Cf. sense 12 c.)
c1440Pallad. on Husb. i. 267 Sum grauel or sum watir lond kest vndir [L. Aliquid etiam terrae dulcis vel arenae subjiciendum est]. Ibid. 438 And feede in hit thy water-fissh & eel [L. anguillas sane piscesque fluviales]. 1683J. Reid Scots Gard. (1907) 41 If you are forced to use sea or water-sand.
25. Objective:
a. with vbl. ns. and pres. pples., as water-blowing, † water-commanding, water-divining, water-dowsing, water-drawing, † water-fetching, † water-flinging, water-holding, water-loving, water-raising, † water-receiving, water-retaining, water-selling, water-yielding; also with ns. and adjs., as water-retention, water-retentive.
c1440Promp. Parv. 456/2 Synke, for water receyvynge, exceptorium. 1570Dee Math. Pref. c j, Then, may you, of Ships water drawing, diuersly, in the Sea and in fresh water, haue pleasant consideration. 1660[R. Dacres] (title) The Elements of Water-drawing, or a Compendious abstract of all sorts and kinds of Water-Machins. 1660Marquis of Worcester in Dircks Life (1865) 223 That..I may put in practice the greatest gift of invention..(I mean my water-commanding engine). 1670Eachard Cont. Clergy 16 Bed-making, chamber-sweeping, and water-fetching were doubtless great preservatives against too much vain philosophy. 1695D. Turner Apol. Chyrurg. 130 Every water-flinging Piss-prophet boasts himself a great Doctor. 1824Morier Hajji Baba ix, With the money I had gained in water-selling, I found myself well off. 1839Ure Dict. Arts 824 The trompe, or water-blowing engine. 1841P. Cunningham Hints Austral. Emigrants title-p., Explanatory Descriptions of the Water-raising Wheels and Modes of irrigating Land in Egypt,..&c. 1851Mayne Reid Scalp-Hunters vi. 48 The water-drawing, wood-hewing pueblos. 1854A. Adams, etc. Man. Nat. Hist. 180 Water-loving Beetles (Philhydridæ). 1877Huxley Physiogr. 32 A great drain was thrown upon the water-yielding power of the strata. 1898K. L. Parker in Murdoch & Drake-Brockman Austral. Short Stories (1951) 2 We thought you..would..know of a goolahgool, or water-holding tree. 1909O. Lodge Survival of Man ix. 128 Just as people occasionally seem able to become cognisant of facts or events by means ordinarily closed to them,—a phenomenon which appears akin to the water-dowsing faculty and to the ‘homing’ instincts of animals,—so sometimes they can write poetry or solve problems beyond their normal capacity. 1913W. Owen Let. 13 Nov. (1967) 211 What it costs to make a Scout. For instance:..Belt..Staff (Water-divining, extra). 1930T. S. Eliot tr. St-J. Perse's Anabasis 63 Consecration of stones perfectly round, water-dowsing in dead places. 1936Discovery Jan. 24/1 They [sc. the soils] are all highly permeable and with a small water-retaining capacity. 1946Nature 13 July 58/1 The lower part of the profile consists..either of re-cemented chalk or compact sand, both of which are very water-retentive. 1952L. MacNeice Ten Burnt Offerings iv. i. 38 A sage whose water-divining mind Will twitch to the smallest drop. 1958Yearbk. Agric. 1957 (U.S. Dept. Agric.) 770/2 Water retention, the physical property of soil that is based on surface force action and that makes it necessary to do work in order to remove water from soil pores and from soil surface. 1969G. Becker in Krishna & Weesner Biol. Termites I. xi. 367 The water content of the soil should be slightly below its water-holding capacity. 1973D. Robertson Survive Savage Sea ii. 73 The unpalatable, brackish water could be administered rectally in the form of water retention enemas. 1979Arizona Daily Star 5 Aug. (Advt. Section) 4/1 Applicant should have at least 3 years experience in the design of hydraulic, water-retaining structures.
b. with agent-nouns, as water-drawer, water-fearer, water-haunter, water-lover, water-tender, † water-searcher, water-seller, water-supplier.
1552Huloet, Water sercher, aquilex. 1562Turner Bathes 16 Smal byrdes..that are of easy digestion. But water-haunters must ye not touche. 1576Fleming tr. Caius' Dogs iv. (1880) 29 This kinde of dogge is also called, In latine Aquarius in Englishe a water drawer. And these be of the greater..sort drawing water out of wells and deepe pittes, by a wheele which [etc.]. 1842T. W. Harris Insects Injurious to Vegetation 11 The water-lovers (Hydrophilidæ)..act the useful part of scavengers. 1867Morris Jason xvii. 264 A marble step..Well worn by many a water-drawer's feet. 1884Bookseller 5 Mar. 262/2 Householders, who have grievances against their local water suppliers. 1884U.S. Navy Exec. Ord. 31 Dec., New ratings are hereby established as follows: boiler maker, water tenders, oilers. a1885G. M. Hopkins Poems (1967) 192 Fallers in dreadful frothpits, waterfearers wild. 1907F. Campbell Shepherd Stars 70 A water-seller ringing his brass bell. 1922Joyce Ulysses 655 Bloom, waterlover, drawer of water. 1948H. C. Nichols Voice at Sea x. 145 This water-tender, or boss stoker as he was sometimes called, was the devil himself.
c. in names of machines, implements, or natural agencies, as † water-chafer, water-conductor, water-feeder, † water-forcer, water-heater, water-holder, water-regulator.
1457Will of Poole (Somerset Ho.), Menne Wat'chafer. 1610Holland Camden's Brit. I. 475 The Citizens conveighed water out of the river through pipes by an artificiall instrument or water-forcer. 1825J. Nicholson Oper. Mech. 332 The water-regulator consists of a large cistern, in which another of less area and capacity is inverted. 1839Ure Dict. Arts 972 No water-feeder of any magnitude should present itself till the shaft had been sunk 100 fathoms. 1843Zoologist I. 14 A leaden water-conductor at the top of our house. 1853Kane Grinnell Exp. xix. (1856) 142 A rugged little water-feeder, formed by the melting snows, sent down a stream of foam. 1880H. C. St. John Wild Coasts Nipon 225 The great tanks are more like small natural lakes than artificially constructed water-holders.
26. Instrumental:
a. with pa. pples., as water-beaten, † water-bollen, water-cooled, water-cut, water-eaten, water-filled, water-girt, † water-gyved, water-hidden, water-inwoven, † water-loaden, water-locked, water-marrowed, † water-mingled, † water-mixed, water-pillared, water-rolled, water-rounded, water-saturated, water-sealed, water-shafted, water-smoothed, water-sodden, water-sorted, water sprinkled, water-tempered, water-walled, water-wattled, water-whipped, water-wound; also with adjs., as water-dispersible, water-poor, water-rich. Also water-bound, -logged, -soaked, -washed, -worn, etc.
c1440Watertemprid [see unevenly adv. 3]. 1555W. Watreman Fardle Facions i. vi. 103 Euery body layes him downe dronckarde-like to reste his water bolne bealy. 1593Nashe Christs T. P 1, The nectarized Aqua cœlestis of water-mingled blood, sluced from Christs side. 1595Shakes. John ii. i. 27 England hedg'd in with the maine, That Water-walled Bulwarke. 1598Sylvester Du Bartas ii. i. iv. Handie-Crafts 776 A sable, water-loaden Sky. 1602Carew Cornwall ii. 106 b, While thus they can nor liue nor dye, Nor water-gieu'd, escape away. 1605Sylvester Du Bartas ii. iii. iii. Law 589 The pure and plenteous Floud Of his most precious Water-mixèd Bloud. 1672Dr. Wild Let. 6 Wellcome as the Dove to the Water-beaten Ark. 1789J. Williams Min. Kingd. II. 205 The balls and glebes always appear water-rounded. 1800J. Hurdis Fav. Village 81 Forlorn and water-lock'd stands the lone mill. 1841H. Miller O.R. Sandst. v. 110 A huge water-rolled boulder of granitic gneiss. 1843Thackeray Irish Sk.-bk. xv, A great, wide,..water-whipped square lies before the..window. 1855Motley Dutch Rep. ii. i. (1866) 132 The blood of a world-wide traffic was daily coursing through the thousand arteries of that water-in⁓woven territory. 1871Tennyson Last Tourn. 253 Quiet as any water-sodden log. 1876G. M. Hopkins Poems (1967) 65 And mazy sands all water-wattled. 1883F. M. Peard Contrad. xvi, The old water-eaten and green stones of beautiful palaces. 1886Standard 4 Jan. 6/5 The Kelso..is waterfilled, in all holds. 1905J. B. Bury St. Patrick vii. 134 The water-girt promontory which is washed on the west by Lake Kilglass. 1911Mrs. H. Ward Case of Richard Meynell i. vi. 120 The narrow strip of land between the pond and the new channel made a little waterlocked kingdom of its own for the cottage. 1922J. A. Dunn Man Trap iv. 49 Most of the young men nowadays are water-marrowed pups. 1924G. A. Burls Cost of Power Production by Internal-Combustion Engines iv. 23 A gas-holder of the familiar inverted water-sealed type. 1925E. Sitwell Troy Park 19 A water-hidden sound. 1927V. Woolf in Forum May 704 Her cowardice; her mean, water-sprinkled blood. 1928‘Brent of Bin Bin’ Up Country xix. 325 The water running on to the water-smoothed stones. 1935L. MacNeice Poems 21 Set these against your water-shafted air of amethyst and moonstone, the horses' feet like bells of hair. 1939J. Steinbeck Grapes of Wrath i. 1 In the water-cut gullies the earth dusted down in dry little streams. 1939Dylan Thomas Map of Love 6 Down the stacked sea and water-pillared shade. 1946Nature 6 July 14/1 For an ordered system, the expansion on wetting is lateral for a water-rich system, and perpendicular for a water-poor system. Ibid. 9 Nov. 675/1 The extent of development obtained is related to the type and throughput of solvent, which is normally 10 ml. of water-saturated ether per strip. 1946Dylan Thomas Deaths & Entrances 63 Turns the moon-chained and water-wound Metropolis of fishes. 1959Times 30 Nov. 18/7 Water-dispersible powders. 1959A. McLintock Descr. Atlas N.Z. 36 Soils derived from fine volcanic ash and watersorted derivatives. 1978J. M. Brown in Further Perspectives Organic Chem. (CIBA) 149 The selective terminal addition to squalene in water-rich solvents. 1979Amer. Jrnl. Trop. Med. & Hygiene XXVIII. 1014/2 The Department of Health of the Philippine government..has campaigned since 1950 for the installation of cheap water-sealed toilets.
b. with pres. pples., as † water-flowing, water-rippling, † water-standing; with vbl. ns., as water-dripping, water-planing, water-rolling, water-seasoning, water-spinning, water-steeping, water-wasting.
1593Shakes. 3 Hen. VI, iv. viii. 43 My mercie [hath] dry'd their water-flowing teares. Ibid. v. vi. 40 Many an old mans sighe, and many a Widdowes, And many an Orphans water-standing-eye. 1595Locrine iv. iii. 28 And from the Lee with water-flowing pipes The moisture is deriu'd into this arch. 1751Ld. Bankton Inst. Law Scot. I. 681 If, by the water-wasting, the ground is worn away, where the dam was formerly. 1754Dict. Arts & Sci. II. s.v. Japanning, Rub the work over with a wet rag till it is rendered as smooth as possible; this work is called water-planing. 1766Complete Farmer s.v. Walk, In order to make them more firm, it will be necessary to give them three or four water-rollings, that is, they should be rolled when it rains very fast; this will cause the gravel to bind. 1823P. Nicholson Pract. Builder 263 Amongst wheelwrights, the water-seasoning [of timber] is of special regard. 1825J. Nicholson Oper. Mech. 386 Water-spinning differs both from the mule and jenny spinning. Ibid. 401 The..process of dew-retting or water-steeping. 1922T. S. Eliot Waste Land (1923) 33 The hermit-thrush..Its ‘water-dripping song’ is justly celebrated. 1924E. Sitwell Sleeping Beauty xx. 77 A lady sang through water-rippling leaves. 1927― Rustic Elegies 76 And the trees' vast waterfalls Echoed this water-dripping song like flashing bright bird-calls.
27. Locative, with agent-nouns and vbl. ns., as water-diver, water farer, † water-skirmisher; water-building, water-dwelling, water-faring, water-hunting. Also water-dwelling, water-haunting, water-growing, water-living, water-standing ppl. adjs.; water-gifted adj.
1570Drant Serm. F v b, The Italians be most wittie, the Spanyardes best water skirmigers. 1625Purchas Pilgrims II. Table s.v., Cunning Water-diuers. 1674Petty Disc. Dupl. Proportion 117 Water-Divers who the lower they go, do find their stock of Air more and more to shrink. 1756–7tr. Keysler's Trav. (1760) I. 86 Three leagues from Munich lies..Starenberg, where the court sometimes takes the particular diversion of water-hunting. 1793Smeaton Edystone L. §185 note, Mortar for water building. 1864J. C. Atkinson Stanton Grange 160 Their haunts are always among water-growing weeds of some sort. 1865Lubbock Preh. Times 122 The curious habit of water-dwelling. a1882Emerson Poet in Compl. Wks. (1883) IX. iii. 309 Methought like water-haunting birds Divers or dippers were his words. 1889Doughty Friesland Meres 277 The waterfarers on this much-frequented river. 1913E. H. Barker Wayfaring in France, Auvergne to Bay of Biscay 254, I decided on a little water-faring up the stream. 1919H. G. Wells Outl. Hist. 12/1 Water-living creatures which are always under water, wave the freely exposed gills by which they breathe in the water. 1934Webster, Water-dwelling. 1936Discovery Jan. 7/2 South American water-dwelling frogs. 1937Ibid. Aug. 252/1 The larger water-haunting birds. 1942W. Faulkner Go down, Moses 340 The planters..had wrested from the impenetrable water-standing cane and cypress..cotton patches which..became fields and then plantations. 1960T. Hughes Lupercal 46 Four-legged yet water-gifted.
28. Similative, as water-grey, water-green, water-white adjs. (and ns.); water-chilly, water-clear, water-cold, water-dark, water-eager, water-flowing, water-precious, † water weak, adjs.
1612J. Davies (Heref.) Muse's Sacrif. (Grosart) 10/1 If lustie now, forth-with [I] am water-weake. 1877Raymond Statist. Mines & Mining 22 Illuminating-oil..of water-white and odorless qualities. 1884Girl's Own Paper 30 Aug. 762/3 A large range of colour..primrose, water-green, beige. 1893Daily News 16 June 6/1 A coat of water-green satin. 1893Saltus Sapphira xii. 146 A sky of dead rose and water-green. 1900Mary E. Coleridge Non Sequitur 33 The mournful water-gray eyes. 1910W. de la Mare Three Mulla-Mulgars xxi. 275 An odd little water-clear song. 1923D. H. Lawrence Birds, Beasts & Flowers 94 Water-eager eyes. 1923Water-precious [see red-gold s.v. red a. 13]. 1924E. Sitwell Sleeping Beauty 27 'Midst brightly perfumed water-flowing Eighteenth-century silks. 1925― Troy Park 59 A flaxen lily Water-chilly. 1928― Five Poems 3 That cloud of gold, Its kernel, crackling amber water-cold. 1945― Song of Cold 11 One of the Dead who lay Beneath the earth, like the water-dark, the water-thin Effigy of Osiris. 1961R. D. Baker Essent. Path. xix. 527 The adenoma has a yellowish or gray, soft cut surface... Microscopically it is composed of chief cells, although occasionally of the so-called ‘water-clear’ cells.
29. Special comb.: water authority, a municipal body administering a system of water supply; water-ballast, cisterns filled with water, placed in the hold of a vessel to serve as ballast; water-baptism, baptism with water, in contradistinction to baptism with the Holy Spirit; water-bar, (a) in Road-making, a ridge on a road, intended to prevent the accumulation of surface water; (b) a tubular bar of a fire-grate, to contain water, communicating with a system of hot-water pipes for warming a building; in quot. attrib.; water-barometer, a barometer in which the pressure of the atmosphere is measured by the height of a column of water, not of mercury as in the usual form of the instrument; water-base a., having water as the main ingredient; water-based a., (a) operating from ships; (b) = water-base; † water-bedrip, a bedrip at which the reapers were supplied with no other drink than water at meals; water body, a body of water forming a physiographical feature, as a sea, reservoir, etc.; water-bomber Canad., an aircraft used for extinguishing forest fires by dropping water on them; hence water-bomb v. trans.; so water-bombing vbl. n.; water-bow poet. (a) a rainbow; (b) a jet of water issuing so as to form an arch; water-boy, (a) a boy employed at the riverside; † (b) the constellation Aquarius; (c) pl. rain-clouds (vulgar); (d) chiefly U.S., a boy or man who carries or takes round drinking water; † water-breach, (a) app. used for water-bank (? some error); (b) an irruption of water; water-breaker1 (see quot. 1823); water-breaker2, a keg or cask for holding water (see breaker2); water-breather, any animal capable of breathing in water (by means of gills); so water-breathing ppl. a.; water-bridge, a fire-bridge which also forms part of the water-space of a boiler, = water-table 4 (Knight Dict. Mech. 1875); water-bus, a motor-boat or steamer carrying paying passengers as part of a scheduled service; † water-camlet (see camlet n. b); water-candlestick (? obs.), a vertical tube filled with water, to hold a floating piece of wax candle; water cannon, a device for shooting a jet of water at high pressure, esp. to disperse crowds, etc.; water-cell, (a) each of the cells in the walls of the stomach of the camel, in which water is stored; (b) an interstice in ice, in which water is occluded; water-chute = water-shoot 4; † water-claw = dew-claw 1; water clerk, an employee of a ship's chandler; † water-cloth, ? a dish-cloth; water-company, a commercial association for the purpose of supplying water (conducted through pipes) to the inhabitants of a town or district; water content, (amount of) water contained in some material; water-cool v. trans., to cool (an engine, etc.) by circulating water; hence water-cooling vbl. n. and ppl. a.; so water-cooled ppl. a.; water-cooler, a vessel or container in which water is kept cool; spec. U.S., a tank of cooled drinking water in a place of work; † water-corn Sc., ‘the grain paid by farmers for upholding the dams and races of mills’ (Jam.); † water-court = court of the watercourse (see watercourse 1 c); water cushion, a depth of water that acts to lessen the impact or force of something; water-deck Mil., a piece of painted canvas to cover the saddle, bridle, and girths of a cavalry horse; † water-dial, a clepsydra; water-diviner = water-finder; † water-dock = wet-dock; water drive Oil Industry, the use of water to force oil out of a reservoir rock; water drum, a drum containing water, or placed in water, and played as a musical instrument; water-dust, water in the form of extremely fine particles, as in clouds and spray [? suggested by G. wasserdunst]; † water-egg, an infecund egg (cf. wind-egg); water-engineering, the construction of reservoirs, embankments, aqueducts, and the like; water-eynd dial. [ande n.], see quot. 1884; † water-fare, a ferry; water-farm, a place where pisciculture is carried on; so water-farming, (a) pisciculture; (b) cultivation of plants growing in water; water-flint dial. (see quot. 1868); water-foot Sc., the mouth of a stream; ‘used also as the name of a village or town at the mouth of a river’ (Jam.); water fountain, a drinking fountain; water-frame, Arkwright's spinning-machine, which was worked by water-power; † water-free a., secure from damage by water; water-funk colloq., a person who is afraid to go in the water; water-gap (see gap n.1 5 b); water-garden, (a) a garden for aquatic plants, an aquarium; (b) see quot. 1902; hence water-gardening; † water-gavel (see quot. 1706); water-gilder, one who practises water-gilding; water-gilding, the process of gilding metal surfaces by applying liquid amalgam, the mercury being afterwards removed by evaporation; similarly water-gilt a.; water-globe = water-ball1; † water-glue, a name for isinglass, ? as being waterproof; water-gold, the liquid amalgam used in water-gilding; also (poet. nonce-use) applied to the ‘liquid’ golden radiance of morning sunshine; water-guard, (a) a body of men employed by the Custom House to watch ships in order to prevent smuggling; (b) U.S. (see quot. 1868); † water-gun, a gun in which the projectile is propelled by pressure of water; water-haul U.S., ‘a haul of the net which catches no fish; fig. fruitless effort’ (Webster 1911); water-heck, -hedge dial., the barred frame hung across a stream at a shallow part to prevent the passage of cattle along the shallow; water-ickle dial., a stalactite; water-inch (see quot.); water injection, (a) Oil Industry, the forcing of water into a reservoir formation, esp. as a technique of secondary recovery (cf. water-flooding vbl. n.); (b) Aeronaut., the injection of water into the cylinders of a piston engine with the fuel, to cool the charge, or into the air intake of a jet engine, to cool the air, so as to increase engine efficiency in either case; water-insoluble a., insoluble in water; water intoxication Med., a condition resulting from the intake of too much water, leading progressively to drowsiness and unsteadiness, confusion, convulsions, coma, and death; so water-intoxicated a.; water-jack, (a) Sc. a roasting-jack turned by a current of water; (b) dial. a waterman; water-jacket, a casing containing water, placed about something to prevent its becoming unduly heated or chilled; also attrib.; hence water-jacketed ppl. a., water-jacketing; water-jet, a stream of water discharged from a small orifice; a fountain; also attrib. water-jet propeller (see quot. 1843); water-jump, a place where a horse is required to leap a stream or ditch; water-keeper, one who guards a tract of water against poachers; cf. gamekeeper; † water-keeping Sc., the guarding of a tract of water against poachers; † water-kin, -kind, the nature of water; water-laid a., (a) Naut. of a rope (see quot. 1857); (b) Geol. of strata, deposited by water; water-lain a. Geol. = water-laid (b); † water-language, the rough language of watermen (cf. water-wit); † water-leasow, a water-meadow; water-leave, permission to navigate a watercourse belonging to another (cf. way-leave); † water-lot U.S., a lot of ground covered with water, but capable of being filled in and converted into building land; water-lungs pl., the branches of the cloaca of holothurians, by some supposed to have respiratory functions; † water-manikin, some kind of sailing-boat; water mass Oceanogr., a large body of sea water that remains distinguished by its temperature and salinity from surrounding water; water-mead = water-meadow; water-monarch nonce-wd., a designation applied (a) to Neptune; (b) to a great fish; water-monger, † (a) a contemptuous designation for a water-caster; (b) a vendor of water; † water-nail, ? a nail that will bear exposure to water without rusting; water-organ, the hydraulicon or hydraulic organ (hydraulic A. 2); water-oven, an oven surrounded by a chamber filled with hot water or steam; water park, a recreational area comprising stretches of fresh water that may be used for boating, etc.; water-party, a pleasure-party making an excursion on the water; † water-piece, ? a piece of leather damaged by water in the process of manufacture; water-pillow (cf. water-bed); water-pistol, a weapon constructed to discharge a sudden jet of water or corrosive liquid; water-plate, a receptacle for hot water to be placed under a dinner-plate in order to keep the food warm; water-pocket, (a) a compartment in a steam-boiler containing a portion of the water; (b) a natural cavity in which water falls or collects; † water-poet, the title adopted by the writer John Taylor, who was a waterman on the Thames; hence gen. a writer of doggerel verse; † water-poise, a hydrometer; water-polo, a game played by teams of swimmers, usu. in a rectangular pool with goal-posts, using a ball similar to a football; water-pore Bot. and Zool., a pore through which water is discharged; † water-pourer, the constellation Aquarius; water-power, the power of moving or falling water employed to drive machinery; concr. a fall or flow of water which can be thus utilized; water-press, a hydrostatic press; water-pressure, hydraulic pressure, so water-pressure engine (see quot. 1829); water-privilege U.S. (a) ‘the right to use water, esp. the right to use running water to turn machinery’; (b) ‘a stream or body of water capable of being utilized in driving machinery’ (Cent. Dict.); † water-rack (see quot. 1679); water-ram = ram n.1 5 a; water-rate, a rate or tax levied by a municipality or a water-company for the supply of water; water-rent = prec.; water-repellent a., not easily penetrated by water though porous; n., an agent conferring this property; so water-repellency; water-resistant a., waterproof or water-repellent; so water-resistance; water resources, natural sources of water available for man's use; freq. attrib. (in sing. or pl.); water-rights (also in sing.), the right to the use of water in a tract of land (cf. water-privilege (a)); † water-rimer, the ‘water-poet’ Taylor; † water-room, space to move about in the water; water-sail, (a) a small sail sometimes set under a lower studding-sail and reaching nearly to the water; (b) a sail lowered into the water to act as a sea anchor; water-screw, a water-elevator on the principle of the Archimedean screw; also attrib. in water-screw-pump; water-shaft, (a) Coal Mining, etc., a shaft sunk to receive the water from an adjoining (coal-)shaft; (b) Salt-making (see quot.); † water-shake, a seismic disturbance of the water; water-shaken a., (of land) saturated with water; † water shard, a deepened channel made by banking up the sides of a stream; water-shear, -shier Sc., a water-parting; † water-shedder Astr. = sense 14; water silk, watered silk (see watered ppl. a. 5); a garment of this material; also fig.; water-sill (see quot.); water-sink, (a) = sink n.1 1 c; (b) a swallow-hole or pot-hole; water-sky (see quot. 1823); water-slang, the slang of rowing-men; water-smoke = water-eynd; water-sneak slang (see quot. 1812); water-softener, an apparatus for making hard water soft by chemical means; also, a chemical used for this purpose; hence water-softening vbl. n. and ppl. a.; water-soluble a., soluble in water; so water-solubility; water-space, that part of a steam-boiler which lies below the steam-space, and holds the water to be evaporated; † water-spelling, hydromancy; water-spinel, a colourless variety of spinel; water-splash, a shallow stream or ford crossing a road; † water-sponge Sc., an ordinary sponge for washing; water-spot v. intr., of fabric: to be liable to show permanently any mark made on it by a drop of water; hence water-spotting vbl. n., the condition of showing such a mark; water sprout = water-shoot 1; water-stain, (a) a stain made on a surface by contact with water; (b) (see quot. 1940); water-stead dial., the bed or course of a stream; a convenient spot on the bank of a stream where cattle can go to drink (Eng. Dial. Dict.); water-stock, shares in a water-company; water-stoma (pl. -stomata) = water-pore (Bot.); water-stop , † (a) = stop n.2 8 a; (b) a place where a traveller or a train may stop for water; (c) a sealant to prevent water from leaking through joints (see quot. 1951); water-streak = water-line 2; water-system, (a) an assemblage of connected rivers and streams; a main stream and its tributaries, considered as a unity; (b) = water-vascular system; † water-tabby = tabby n. 1; water-tathe v. (see tathe v. 1); water taxi, a small boat used for casual passenger traffic on rivers, canals, etc.; water-telescope, an instrument for observing objects under water; water-thermometer, a thermometer filled with water instead of mercury, devised by Dalton for ascertaining the precise degree of temperature at which water attains its maximum density; water-thief poet., a pirate; water toothpick = water-pick (see Water Pik); water-torture, a form of torture in which the victim is made to endure an incessant drip of water on the head (see also quot. 1928); also fig.; water-tower, (a) a tower serving as a reservoir to deliver water at a required head; (b) a long iron tube, carried vertically on a wheeled frame, for discharging water to extinguish fires in the upper stories of buildings; water-treader, † (a) poet. a ship; (b) one who treads water (tread v. 7); water treatment, (a) = water-cure; (b) = water torture above; water-tube, (a) one of a set of tubular organs which open upon the exterior of certain invertebrates and are supposed to have an excretory function; (b) each of the tubes carrying water through a water-tube boiler; water-tube boiler, a form of boiler in which the water circulates through tubes exposed to the gases of combustion; † water-twig = water-shoot 1; water tunnel (see quot. 1969); water-twist, cotton yarn spun on a water-frame; water-vapour, the invisible aqueous vapour present in the atmosphere; water-vascular a. Zool., pertaining to water-vessels (see next); water-vessel Zool., one of a system of vessels in which water circulates, in certain Invertebrata; water-wag, a kind of small boat used at Dublin; water-wagon, (a) orig. U.S. = water-cart n. (Cent. Dict. Suppl.); also slang (see quot. 1904); cf. wagon, waggon n. 11 b; (b) a kind of cumulus (see quots.); † water-wan [wane n.1], lack of water; † water-want a. nonce-wd., that can endure privation of water; water-watcher, a water-bailiff; water-wet, moisture of herbage due to saturation by rain; water-wit, the rough wit of watermen; water-woman, a woman who acts as a waterman; water-wood, timber which grows near water; water-worship, religious adoration paid to rivers or other bodies of water; so water-worshipper; † water-wrack, refuse left by a destructive flood.
1878D. Kemp Man. Yacht Sailing 377 *Water Ballast, water carried in tanks or breakers as ballast. 1885J. Runciman Skippers & Shellbacks 238 Bitterly repented having come out with nothing but his water-ballast. 1901Scotsman 14 Mar. 6/8 The boat..has a water ballast tank.
1673Bunyan (title) Differences in Judgment about *Water-Baptism, No Bar to Communion. a1716Bp. O. Blackall Wks. (1723) I. 212 That thus, and no otherwise the Apostles..did admit into the Christian Church all that were receiv'd thereinto, i.e. by the Water-Baptism, is evident. a1879E. Backhouse Ch. Hist. xi. (1884) 122 There were other sects who rejected both water-baptism and the Eucharist.
1868Rep. U.S. Commissioner Agric. (1869) 360 On such road provide low *water bars across the road at intervals of thirty to forty feet. Ibid. 362 Water Bars. The purpose of the bar is to cast the surface water from the road to the side or sides before it has accumulated in such amount as to cut the ruts into gullies. 1884Health Exhib. Catal. 124/2 Weeks's Tubular Waterbar Open Fire Grate.
1773W. Emerson Princ. Mech. (ed. 3) 243 AF a *water barometer. 1866A. Steinmetz Weathercasts 143 The water barometer at the Royal Society's rooms gave more than 13 inches (13·386) rise and fall for every inch of the mercurial column.
1949Sci. Digest Dec. 93 *Water-base paints have been in use for years, but in the past they could not be washed without coming off. 1975McGraw-Hill Yearbk. Sci. & Technol. 300/2 Because of the cost of oil-base drilling fluids.., research is continuing so that water-base drilling fluids that can provide the properties needed..can be developed.
1955Sci. News Let. 15 Jan. 37/2 The new big swept-wing plane..was described as a ‘truly *water-based aircraft’ capable of operating in high waves and marginal sea conditions. 1981Sci. Amer. Aug. 85/1 Oil-based graphites tend to give off fumes, and so the latest trend in the forging industry is toward the use of water-based graphites.
c1360in Mélanges Charles Bémont (1913) 83 Nullum potum habebit eo die nisi aquam, et idcirco dicitur *waterbedrip.
1897*Water body [see sheet-flood s.v. sheet n.1 12 b]. 1974R. H. Britton in R. Goodier Natural Environment of Shetland 123 The most abundant type of standing waterbody on Shetland, (accounting for 27·4% of the total), is a dystrophic loch of area less than 1 hectare.
1975Sci. Amer. June 88/1 (Advt.), There are many excellent shots of the planes in action, 2 of which are shown here *water-bombing the blaze.
1961Canada Month 6 Oct. 42/3 The Grove and Tsus fires..could have been kept small if *water bombers and helicopters had been available from the beginning. 1975Globe & Mail (Toronto) 20 Aug. 8/6 He said 40 ministry firefighters, another force of 48 junior rangers,..a ministry water bomber and commercial aircraft..are all being used.
1959Time (Canada ed.) 17 Aug. 13/3 Ontario has a new gadget that makes *water-bombing more efficient than ever: snorkel-like water intakes on tanks attached to the aircraft floats that enable the planes to load up as they taxi along lake surfaces.
1827G. Darley Sylvia 16 With their varied colours blending Hues to shame the *water-bow. 1855Browning Cleon 252 They praise a fountain in my garden here Wherein a Naiad sends the water-bow Thin from her tube.
1640J. Gower Ovid's Festiv. i. 19 Sol leaving Capricorn, His race-horse to the *Water-boy doth turn. 1722Applebee's Weekly Jrnl. 22 Sept. 2471/1 Mr. Lear landed at King's-Arms Stairs, and put on the Water Boy's Cap, the better to disguise himself. 1859Harper's Mag. Apr. 712/1 The ‘water-boy’ in his first round found me standing by the stove. 1895Westm. Gaz. 7 Sept. 2/1 There were some waterboys out, an' we wanted to get down afore there were any downfall. 1903Congress. Directory 116 He assisted himself in securing an education by working as a ‘water boy’ on the railroad. 1965J. A. Michener Source (1966) 408 Trumpeters, drummers, waterboys and cooks followed in a compact nest, protected by many soldiers, and not until this stupendous preamble had passed did the actual fighting men appear. 1972J. Mosedale Football viii. 106 Hubbard was convinced that Dobie was illegally sending in plays by arranging cups on the water tray. He kicked over the tray every time the water boy came on the field. 1979P. Theroux Old Patagonian Express xii. 185 Praising the quarterback, mocking the water-boy.
1398Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xvii. cxxvi. (1495) 686 And the places wherin suche Papirio Russhes growe is as marreys and moores by meedes and *water breches [L. aquarum ripis]. 1669Holder Elem. Speech 5 Bells serve to proclaim a scare-fire, and (in some places) Water-breaches.
1823P. Nicholson Pract. Builder 302 *Water-breakers,..being the extremities of the piers which meet and divide the water in its course. 1900Westm. Gaz. 27 Dec. 5/2 The commander..had life-belts sent adrift for every man, and six out of the seven were successful in being caught, but the seventh man secured himself to a water-breaker.
1851Woodward Mollusca i. (1880) 25 Stale water is so inimical to the *water-breathers, that [etc.]. 1883Fisheries Exhib. Catal. (ed. 4) 99 All crustacea are water breathers.
1861P. P. Carpenter in Rep. Smithsonian Inst. 1860, 223 The..*Water-breathing Prosobranchs.
1929A. P. Herbert in Times 16 Nov. 8/1 Let no one tell us that the Londoner ‘does not want’ the *water-bus. There was not much evidence that he wanted the Tubes..before he got them. 1940Economist 21 Sept. 368/2 The waterbus service, which London Transport has been running..between Westminster and Woolwich and Greenwich, has won a popularity... It is an emergency experiment that may survive both air-raids and the war itself. 1981T. Holme Funeral of Gondolas i. 9 The Rialto Bridge humped regally over the Grand Canal... A water-bus..churned water in mid-stream.
1592Greene's Vision, Descr. Sir Geff. Chawcer, A Sleeuelesse Iacket large and wide..Of *water Chamlet did he weare.
1823J. Badcock Dom. Amusem. 203 The pillar..is made hollow, for the purpose of receiving a *water candlestick of an inch diameter.
1964L. Deighton Funeral in Berlin xlii. 251 An American M.P. shouted, ‘You want a goddam *water-cannon to wash you across the sidewalk, fella?’ 1982Listener 23 & 30 Dec. 5/3 People had begun to take to the streets, defying martial law, tear-gas, water-cannon and bullets.
1859Todd's Cycl. Anat. V. 507/1 The beautiful provision of *water-cells in the walls of the paunch or first cavity of the stomach [of a camel]. 1860Tyndall Glac. i. xix. 136 Reduced..to a mere skeleton of ice, with water-cells between its walls.
1899Westm. Gaz. 8 May 7/2 The lake has been enlarged, and a switchback railway and a *water chute promise rounds of delight. 1901Scotsman 8 Mar. 6/7 A waterchute is rapidly rising into form in the river Kelvin.
1611Cotgr., Controngle, the Deaw-claw, or *water-claw of dogs.
1898Barbados Freight Rep. in F. Holm-Petersen Fra Sejl til Diesel (1951) I. 335 Our *Water Clerk will meet the Vessels on their entering the bay. 1973P. Theroux Saint Jack xiii. 156, I knew my job as a water-clerk..and pored over the shipping pages of the Straits Times.
1411Nottingham Rec. II. 86, j. *watre-cloth.
1813Examiner 24 May 325/2 The street being broken up by a *Water Company. 1877Huxley Physiogr. 28 An independent source of water was supplied by the great water-companies.
1946Nature 21 Dec. 899/2 Vitamin-like substances..in cells with assumed *water-contents of 80 per cent. 1957G. E. Hutchinson Treat. Limnol. I. iv. 222 The water content of the major part of the lithosphere..is unknown. 1969Water content [see water-holding, sense 25 a above].
1909Webster, *Water-cool v.t. 1915W. E. Dommett Submarine Vessels v. 50 Due to the high temperatures, it is necessary to not only water-cool the cylinder, but also to cool the piston. 1971Physics Bull. July 401/2 The essential difference..is well illustrated in this example by the need to water-cool the measuring head because of high levels of radiant heat.
1905Westm. Gaz. 23 May 4/2 A 12-h.p. *water-cooled Lanchester car. 1984B. Francis AA Car Duffer's Guide 63/1 Modern water-cooled systems incorporate a thermostat. 1984Mining Jrnl. 4 May 297 China has also expressed interest in Japan's PNC heavy water moderated, light water-cooled advanced thermal reactor.
1846Catholic Herald (Philadelphia) 30 Aug. 272/4 Refrigerators, *water coolers, and filterers. 1899Jesse L. Williams Stolen Story, etc. 34 He..stepped up to the water-cooler and filled a glass. 1955R. P. Jhabvala To whom she Will xxiii. 168 An earthenware water-cooler. 1969Canad. Antiques Collector Aug. 6/1 (Advt.), Salt glazed water cooler with incised blue decoration... Each side has riderless horse. 1978Amer. Speech LIII. 5 Slang..is inexact and meaningless, but these are characteristics it shares with much of standard English, as fifteen minutes at a water cooler or a political rally will show.
1910R. Ferris How it Flies x. 198 To keep the cylinder cool enough to be serviceable, two methods are in use: the air-cooling system and the *water-cooling system. 1934Physical Rev. XLV. 608/1 At 3,000,000 volts, ion currents of 1/3 microampere are readily obtainable and it is probable that water-cooling of the accelerators and the bombarded targets will result in considerably larger utilizable currents. 1985Dirt Bike Mar. 39/2 They wanted watercooling for reasons of reliability.
1600Reg. Mag. Sig. Scot. 354/2 Duas nonas partes molendini..cum multuris, sequelis, lie knaifschippis, lie *watter coirnes, &c. 1814Mill of Inveramsay 3 (Jam.), 1 boll of water-corn, being small corn, yearly, for each of the said three ploughs, for manufacturing and upholding the dams and water-gangs.
1482in Charters etc. Edin. (1871) 169 All vthir custumys and priuilegis..with thare *watir courtis attaichiamentis vnlawes and dewiteis. 1591in R. P. Cruden Hist. Gravesend (1842) 203 Paid..for wine given to my Lords' men when the Water Court was kept 0 0 8.
1907H. Brown Irrigation vi. 120 A pressure due to 63/4 feet head of water, of which 3 feet is balanced by the *water cushion on the floor. 1955S. Leliavsky Irrigation & Hydraulic Design I. ii. 270 Finally, we must mention the method of scour prevention which in earlier times was known as the ‘stilling pool’ or the ‘water cushion’, and which is now described..as the ‘cistern’. 1972L. M. Harris Introd. Deepwater Floating Drilling Operations xvi. 169 The larger the water cushion [in a well], the larger the surface pressures required to unload it.
1844Queen's Regul. Army 74 The supply of Corn Sacks, and *Water Decks to the Cavalry. 1875J. Grant One of ‘Six Hundred’ xxii. 169, I also wish the corps to be supplied with water-decks.
1653Van Etten's Math. Recreat. 170 Vitruvius writes of another manner of *water-Dyal more difficult. 1758E. Stone Bion's Math. Instrum. Suppl. 309 The Instruments for measuring Time, are Sun-Dials, Water-Dials, Sand-Dials [etc.].
1896Weekly Times 24 Jan. 72/2 Lately two ‘*water-diviners’..visited the well, and both predicted that water would be found at certain indicated spots. 1902Cornish Naturalist Thames 59 At the Agricultural Show, the water-diviner sits installed.
a1700Evelyn Diary 19 July 1661, We tried our Diving Bell or engine in the *water-dock at Deptford.
1938H. S. Gibson in A. E. Dunstan et al. Sci. of Petroleum I. xi. 538/1 The employment of the *water drive as a process has received considerable attention. 1973C. J. May in Hobson & Pohl Mod. Petroleum Technol. (ed. 4) v. 165 When recovery was mostly by water drive, the percentage extraction varied from 24 to 78, and the recovery per acre-foot of sand from 242 to 1165 brl.
1923C. M. Barbeau Indian Days in Canad. Rockies 120 A deep sound from the seer's lodge startled the people, a sound like that of a large *water drum. 1955M. Barbeau Tree of Dreams 95 The thumping of water drums at times startled the bleak places, now covered with a mantle of snow. 1970P. Oliver Savannah Syncopators 106 Outstanding xylophone orchestras, kora, water-drum, harp and harp-lute. 1973A. H. Whiteford North Amer. Indian Arts 103 The Iroquois also made water drums with plugs to change the level of the water and the tone of the drum.
1873Tyndall Forms of Water 4 When the vapour mingles with the cold air..it ceases to be vapour. Every bit of steam shrinks, when chilled, to a much more minute particle of water. The liquid particles thus produced form a kind of *water-dust of exceeding fineness, which floats in the air, and is called a cloud. 1884Lock Workshop Receipts Ser. iii. 257/2 Small pieces..are very well hardened in water-dust finely distributed by means of a stream of air or steam.
1577B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. iv. 169 Theodorus calleth them *water Egges [L. urina ova], whereof there neuer commeth any thing.
1908W. M. Ramsay Luke the Physician v. 191 Irrigation has never ceased and is still practised in certain districts, so that the essential principles of *water-engineering have not been wholly forgotten.
1883G. C. Davies Norfolk Broads xxxv. 266 The ‘*water-eynd’ or sea-smoke,..covers the marsh with a dense watery vapour. 1884Chamb. Jrnl. 3 May 275/2 Another peculiar and uncomfortable phenomenon of the marshes is the water-eynd or sea-smoke, which, rolling up from the ocean, covers the whole landscape with a dense watery vapour.
1610Holland Camden's Brit. i. 534 Sometimes there was a Ferry or *Water-fare here.
1868Peard Water-farm. ii. 12 Though many of our *water-farms have to be created, a large number require only to be improved.
Ibid. (title) Practical *Water-farming. 1889Harper's Mag. May 859/1 A few miles away, the native lotus grows luxuriantly, a relic, it is believed, of Indian water-farming.
1868Thurnam in Archæologia XLII. 208 The third flat-stone is a quartzose boulder of the kind known as ‘*water flints’ in this part of Somersetshire.
1786Burns Holy Fair xvi, Peebles, frae the *water-fit, Ascends the holy rostrum.
1946M. C. Self Horseman's Encycl. 429 Automatic *water fountains are most useful for the stable. 1975‘E. Lathen’ By Hook or by Crook xxi. 194 A salt-tablet dispenser beside every water fountain.
1825J. Nicholson Oper. Mech. 387 In the *water-frame the spindles are moved by an up⁓right pulley.
1642Fuller Holy & Prof. St. iii. iv. 159 'Tis a tale what Josephus writes of the two pillars set up by the sonnes of Seth in Syria, the one of brick, fire-proof; the other of stone, *water-free.
1899Kipling Stalky iii. 89 You spoke to Beetle yourself, didn't you? Something about not bathing, and being a *water-funk?
1835R. M. Bird Hawks i. (1856) 4 The highway to the neighbouring *water-gap..ran through the estate. 1883Science I. 325/2 Transverse valleys or water-gaps.
1891Hardwicke's Sci.-Gossip XXVII. 19 Fresh-Water Aquaria, [Reviewed]..A well-written description of these domestic *water-gardens and vivaria. 1899S. R. Hole Our Gardens x. 214 Where there are pools of water..you may have the beautiful Water Garden. 1902Cornish Naturalist Thames 176 A recent addition to the country house is the ‘water garden’, in which a running brook is the centre and motif of the subsidiary ornaments of flowers, ferns, trees, shrubs, and mosses. 1915Edin. Rev. July 111 The Dutch gardens, like those of Spain, were themselves water-gardens.
1938F. Perry Water Gardening p. ix, When I first took an interest in *water gardening the dearth of literature upon the subject was the cause of much disappointment. 1982B. Chatto Damp Garden vi. 98 Water gardening on the landscaping scale is quite a different affair from the marginal plantings.
1231in Blount Law Dict. (1691) s.v., Redditum..quem homines eorundem Huberti & Margariæ de Manerio suo de Elmour nobis reddere solebant singulis annis per manum Balivi nostri de Menstre-Worth, nomine *Watergavel. 1706Phillips (ed. Kersey), Water-Gavel, a Rent paid in old Times for fishing in, or other Benefit received from some River, or Water.
1799G. Smith Laboratory I. 72 The amalgam of gold with mercury..is used principally by the workmen, in gilding in water-gold, termed *water-gilders. 1897Allbutt's Syst. Med. II. 931 Until lately water-gilders made use of mercury for depositing gold on metallic surfaces.
1783Trans. Soc. Arts I. 320 An Apparatus to prevent the ill effects of Mercury in *Water Gilding. c1820Philos. Recreat. 151 Water-gilding upon Silver. 1855G. Gore Pract. Chem. 72 The following solutions have been used for gilding by the simple immersion, or ‘water-gilding’ process. 1883J. W. Mollett Dict. Art & Archæol. 343 Water-gilding, gilding with a thin coat of amalgam.
a1776Duchess of Northumberland Diary in Country Life (1974) 7 Feb. 251/3 The *Water Gilt Locks..were made at Birmingham. 1898Westm. Gaz. 28 Oct. 4/2 A Processional cross... The materials employed are silver, water-gilt, carbuncles, green onyx, and enamel.
1897A. Hartshorne Old Engl. Glasses 60 The mediaeval ourinals—alike the retorts of the alchemist and the *water-globes for the poor Flemish flax-thread spinners..and the lace-makers weaving the subtle webs..of Brussels, Mechlin, or Valenciennes.
1590Sir J. Smythe Disc. Conc. Weapons 19 b, A kinde of *waterglewe to resist wet and moysture. 1678Evelyn Pomona (ed. 3) 407 As you augment the Proportion of Ising-glass or Water-glew, so it will become more limpid and clear. 1725Bradley's Family Dict. s.v. Glue, The Fish which is made use of to make Water-glue is very large.
1686Lond. Gaz. No. 2114/4 Lost.., a large black Boar Skin, lined with new Canvas, with four brass Claws gilt, with *Water-gold. 1839–41Lane Arab. Nts. III. 220, I command thee to build for me, during this night, a lofty palace, and to decorate it with water-gold. 1855Browning Old Pictures in Florence i, Where, white and wide And washed by the morning's water-gold, Florence lay out on the mountain side.
1646Jrnls. Ho. Comm. V. 22/2 [A Lords' ordinance] concerning the *Water Guards. 1812J. Smyth Pract. Customs 1 On the arrival of a Vessel from foreign parts, within the limits of a British Port, it is the duty of the Tide-surveyor, or the Officer who superintends the Water-guard, to proceed on board. 1828Blackw. Mag. XXIV. 552 A powerful preventive water-guard was placed here. 1868B. J. Lossing Hudson 351 The ‘water-guard’ was an aquatic corps, in the pay of the revolutionary government.
1646Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. ii. v. 89 There are wayes to discharge a bullet..without any powder at all, as is done by *water and windegunnes.
1871Congressional Globe 17 Feb. 1356/1 It occurred to me..[that] the gentleman from California had made what fishermen call a ‘*waterhaul’. [Laughter.] It surely must not have been what he expected. 1882Critic (Washington) 23 Feb. (Thornton) Ostensibly I went to testify as an expert in the Star-route cases, but I did not testify. You know that was another water-haul.
1639–40Q. Sess. Rec. (N. Riding Rec. Soc.) IV. 161 Indenture of Conveyance..Together with all and singular wayes, *water-hedges, trees, ditches, fences, etc.
1802R. Warner Tour Northern Counties I. 161 Those pendant spiral masses called *water-icles or stalactites. 1824Carr Craven Gloss., Water-icles, stalactites.
1855Ogilvie Suppl., *Water-inch, the quantity of water flowing in one minute through a circular opening one inch in diameter, whose centre is one and one twelfth inches below a constant surface.
1940Jrnl. R. Aeronaut. Soc. XLIV. 590 Will *water injection become practical? 1943Oil & Gas Jrnl. 11 Nov. 230/2 Because an adequate low-cost water supply was available at Midway, the economic possibilities of experimental water injection were clear. 1947Shell Aviation News No. 106. 21/1 If required water injection apparatus can be included to give additional power for take-off. 1970M. Smith Aviation Fuels ix. 62 By means of water injection, heat is taken away from the cylinders, pistons and exhaust valves, and removed out of harm's way by the steam so formed, which discharges from the exhaust system. 1982Water injection [see water-flooding vbl. n.].
1946Nature 16 Nov. 709/2 The black, *water-insoluble pigment.
1937Amer. Jrnl. Physiol. CXIX. 557 The serum sodium and chloride levels are low in the *water intoxicated animal.
1922Physiol. Rev. II. 158 (heading) The effects of excessive ingestion: *water intoxication. 1974Passmore & Robson Compan. Med. Stud. III. xlix. 8/2 Water intoxication should be considered in any patient with unexplained cerebral dysfunction, particularly if the individual has recently undergone an operation.
1869Eng. Mech. 17 Dec. 324/2 In Scotland..they [sc. turbines] are employed for driving what are called *water-jacks for roasting meat. 1886R. C. Leslie Sea-painter's Log i. 26 Becoming first the privileged helper of some waterjack.
1869Tanner Clin. Med. (ed. 2) 62 The vessel is surrounded with a *water-jacket, so as to prevent the chloroform getting too cold to afford the requisite amount of vapour to the air passing over it. 1877Raymond Statist. Mines & Mining 181 The water-jacket furnace..was built with a view to avoid these costly repairs, but has proved an economical failure thus far. 1898Kipling Fleet in Being ii. 19 Three Maxims adorned the low nettings. Their water-jackets were filled up from an innocent tin-pot before the game began. It looked like slaking the thirst of devils. 1898Allbutt's Syst. Med. V. 453 The whole [coagulometer] is surrounded by a water-jacket.
1877Raymond Statist. Mines & Mining 3 The roasting is effected in a peculiar *water-jacketed furnace or kiln, with a removable bottom.
1907Motor Boat 19 Sept. 191/2 This is a frequent trouble with paraffin motors,..The cure is to fit a snifter valve to each cylinder to allow a water drip; this, combined with efficient *water-jacketing, should do away with the trouble.
1832G. Downes Lett. Cont. Countries I. 298 The Temple of Apollo, as another chamber is designated, contains a *water-jet. 1843Artizan I. 220/1 Water-jet Propellers. A curious mode of propelling steam ships has been invented by Mr. Ruthven, who proposes to give a better direction to the propelling power by forcing jets of water through nozzles placed below the water-line. 1894W. H. White Nav. Archit. (ed. 3) 585 The Water-jet Propeller.
1875S. Sidney Bk. Horse xx. 431 A big *water-jump. 1883Mrs. E. Kennard Right Sort xx, Take a good firm hold of his head, and set King Olaf just as fast as you please at the water-jump. He'll clear it by yards.
1898J. Macmanus Bend of Road 118 The *wather-keeper..was shot be the poochers on the Dhrowes river. 1920D. H. Lawrence Women in Love xiv. 202 He called at the water-keeper's cottage and took the key of the sluice.
1420in Reg. Mag. Sig. Scot. 1430, 30/1 The forsaid lord has grantit to..Michel the office of *watter keping and the office of chamerlanry of Ananderdale. 1423Ibid. 30/2.
c1200Ormin Ded. 193 Forr þatt he wollde uss *waterrkinn Till ure fulluhht hallȝhenn.
Ibid. 18087 Forr Latin boc seȝȝþ þatt Ennon Bitacneþþ *waterrkinde.
1857C. Richardson Instruct. Swimming 51 The cord should be well twisted, or what sailors call ‘*waterlaid’. 1888E. Clodd Story Creation iv. 29 The study of the erupted, fire-fused, and water-laid rocks. 1895Nation (N.Y.) 19 Dec. 451/1 The association of basic igneous rocks with the water-laid gravels.
1959New Biol. XXIX. 14 Any given bed of *water-lain rock is usually formed of relatively uniform particles; wind-deposited sands show a similar sorting. 1977A. Hallam Planet Earth 55/1 The word ‘dune’ is often thought to refer only to those forms built by wind, but it is now used equally for water-lain structures.
1721Amherst Terræ Fil. No. 1, 2 The famous saturnalian feasts among the Romans, at which every scullion..had liberty to tell his master his own... 'Twas all *water-language as these times and no exceptions were to be taken.
1858Act 21 & 22 Vict. c. 44 §19 As also all Wayleaves or *Waterleaves, Canals, [etc.].
c1440Promp. Parv. 518/1 *Water lesu, aquagium.
1777Maryland Jrnl. 4 Nov. (Thornton) A *Water Lot of Ground, on Fell's Point. 1857Putnam's Monthly Mag. Feb. 170/2 He had become a merchant of note, a man of water-lots and steam-boats, and shares in desirable sites at the head of navigation. 1877Revised Statutes Ontario I. 261 marg., Sales and appropriations of water lots declared to be legal.
1877Encycl. Brit. VII. 639/2 Two, or more rarely four or five, branched processes of the cloaca, the respiratory trees or *water-lungs, are ordinarily present. 1884F. J. Bell in Proc. Zool. Soc. 254 The so-called water-lungs extend forwards to the anterior end of the body.
1794Stedman Surinam (1813) II. 403 Sail boats called *water-manakins.
1912Murray & Hjort Depths of Ocean v. 261 From a study of the distribution of salinity and temperature the average direction of the drift of the *water-masses may be deduced. 1976Nature 19 Feb. 606/2 No influx of the Atlantic watermass into northeast Icelandic waters was observed in June 1975.
1840T. A. Trollope Summer in Brittany I. 381 A pretty walk along the valley, which is occupied by a succession of *water-meads.
1818Keats Endym. iii. 917 Meantime a glorious revelry began Before the *Water-Monarch. 1847Stoddart Angler's Comp. 250 Give me..the rush of some veteran water-monarch.
1623Hart Arraignm. Ur. i. ii. 9 Empirickes, *water-mongers, and peticoat-physitians. 1845Ford Handbk. Spain i. 72 While in particular stations water-mongers in wholesale have a shed.
1403in Compotus Rolls Obedientiaries St. Swithun's, Winch. (1892) 425 In xlij bordis ad idem emptis viijs. ixd. In cc *Waturnailes ad idem emptis xijd. 1481–90Howard Househ. Bks. (Roxb.) 211 Item, fur dore nayle, and watter nayle, iiij. c. and qrtr. ij. s. ix. d. ob.
1647A. Ross Mystag. Poet. xvi. (1675) 384 One of those musical instruments of old called Hydraula, we may call them *water-organs. 1649Ogilby Virgil, Bucolicks vii. (1684) 30 note, The Motion of Water maketh Musick, as we see in Water-Organs. 1852Seidel Organ 13 The invention of the water-organ by..Ctesibius, of Alexandria.
1857Miller Elem. Chem., Org. 6 By exposing it to a temperature of from 212° to 250° in a *water oven or box of sheet copper. 1884Health Exhib. Catal. 111/1 Fitted with a patent water-oven, for keeping food hot.
1928Observer 15 July 12 In the north-eastern workmen's district of Floridsdorf,..a new ‘*water-park’ has just been opened. It..includes two ponds, connected by canals, so that some kind of ‘little Venice’ has been created. 1972Daily Tel. 4 Sept. 8 A national water park that would include the Norfolk Broads and the Fens is being planned.
1790Mrs. P. L. Powys Passages fr. Diaries (1899) 248 August 21st.—Mrs. Williams' *water-party. 1798W. Windham Diary (1866) 397 June 6th.—Water party to Greenwich. 1834Disraeli Let. in Monypenny Life (1910) I. 251, I had promised to join a water party in Sir Frank's yacht. 1840Dickens Sk. Yng. Couples 29 There was a great water-party made up to go to Twickenham and dine.
1687Proclam. 29 Apr. in Lond. Gaz. No. 2240/2 We have Prohibited, and do hereby Prohibit the Exportation of all Linnen Rags, Glovers Clippings, Parchment Shreds, Calves Pates, and *Waterpieces.
1905Daily Chron. 29 Nov. 1/7 A burglar who is said to have carried a ‘*water pistol’ and to have thrown or fired some ammonia into the eyes of a householder is under remand at Woolwich.
1747Gentl. Mag. XVII. 37/2 In chaffing-dish, tho' most of late Prefer the cleanlier *water-plate. 1822Lamb Elia, Distant Corresp., This kind of dish..requires to be served up hot; or sent off in water-plates, that your friend may have it almost as warm as yourself.
1890Century Mag. Apr. 916/2 We lunch by a *water-pocket that was filled by a storm 2 months ago. 1891Pall Mall Gaz. 12 Jan. 7/1 The boiler consists of a cylindrical upper part..6 ft. long, and two lower prismatic water pockets also about 6 ft. in length. 1904Daily Chron. 19 July 5/3 [Four persons] were crossing the Argentière Glacier to-day, when a water pocket burst, and the whole party were hurled against the rocks by the rush of water.
1679Alsop Melius Inquir. i. i. 40 Your common Hackney Versifiers or *Water-Poets.
1660R. Dacres Elem. Water-drawing 24 By which better appeared the vanity of the *water poyse. 1667Phil. Trans. II. 496 The Sea..was..much more Salt, the further we went; as I tryed by a Water-poise of Glass, with Quicksilver at the one end. 1772T. Percival Ess. (1777) I. 342 Dr Hoffman, by means of a glass waterpoise divided by lines, examined hydrostatically several different kinds of water.
1884*Water polo [see polo 2]. 1888Field 25 Aug. 277/3 Water Polo Inter-Club Championship. 1919W. T. Grenfell Labrador Doctor iii. 61 Our water polo games were also a great feature here, the water being warm. 1923T. Sachs Compl. Swimmer (ed. 2) 151 Water polo differs from other games, not only in the irrelevancy of its name, but also in being a game that was made to order. 1980Guinness Bk. Records 334/2 Water Polo was developed in England as ‘Water Soccer’ in 1869.
1884Bower & Scott De Bary's Phaner. 45 Two varieties of stoma may be distinguished, which may briefly be termed air pores (or stomata), and *water-pores. 1888Rolleston & Jackson Anim. Life 575 (Crinoidea) Water-pores, or short tubular canals with a median ciliated dilatation, open into the coelome from the exterior.
1565B. Googe tr. Palingenius' Zodiac xi. QQ j, The *Waterpourer, and..the Fishes two that flote. 1573W. Bourne Regim. Sea (1580) 59 b, The names of the Starres..Goates taile. Water pourers leg.
1817M. Birkbeck Notes Journey Amer. 119 Water-mills, or, in defect of *water-power, steam-mills rise on the nearest navigable stream. 1836C. P. Traill Backw. Canada 89 There is great water-power, both as regards the river and the fine broad creek. a1861T. Winthrop Life in Open Air (1863) 24 Far down, at some water-power nearest the reach of tide, a boom checks the march of this formidable body. 1871C. Marshall Canadian Dominion 42 The saw-mills are built where a great water-power can be obtained.
1825J. Nicholson Oper. Mech. 292 The hydrostatic or *water-press.
1849J. Glynn Constr. Cranes 48 A self-acting crane..has been erected on the quay at Newcastle-on-Tyne... It is worked by *water pressure.
1829Nat. Philos., Hydraulics iii. (U.K.S.) 29 What is called the *Water-pressure Engine, being, in fact, a steam-engine, worked by water instead of steam. 1839Ure Dict. Arts 969 The engines at present employed in the drainage of coal-mines are:—1. The water-wheel, and water-pressure engine. 1853Glynn Power Water 98 The first water-pressure engine used in England was erected..in the year 1765.
1804New Hampshire Probate Rec. (1916) III. 755 We set off to Deborah Shackford,..the *Water Privilege belonging to said Estate. 1812Mass. Spy 9 Sept. 3/5 To be Sold! A Water Privilege in Wrentham. 1822Ibid. 31 July (Thornton) Valuable Mills and Water Privileges. 1849Thoreau Week Concord Riv. Tuesday 230 Some of the finest water privileges in the country still unimproved on the former stream. 1877Raymond Statist. Mines & Mining 243 Just below this lode..Armstrong & Co. have located an admirable mill-site and water-privilege. 1879F. R. Stockton Rudder Grange i, I then went to a well belonging to a cottage near by where we had arranged for water-privileges, and filled two buckets with delicious water.
1679J. Goodman Penit. Pard. i. iv. (1713) 114 We count the *Water-rack a very severe torture, to have that element forced down a man's throat, till all the vessels of his body are stretched and tympanized.
1806tr. Mongolfier in Nicholson's Jrnl. Nat. Philos, XIV. 103 The following is the description of a *water-ram. 1829Nat. Philos., Hydraulics ii. (U.K.S.) 20 The Water Ram or Bélier Hydraulique, as it was called by its inventor, M. Montgolfier, of Paris. 1877Wood Nature's Teach., Usef. Arts x. 435 The water-ram with its globular valve.
1837Dickens Pickw. xxvii, ‘What d'ye think it [the money] was all for?’.. ‘For the shepherd's *water-rate, Sammy.’ 1839― Nich. Nick. xiv, Having an uncle who collected a water-rate.
1802R. Warner Tour N. Counties II. 285 Only 110 l. is received from the *water-rents of the houses to which the element is conducted.
1942Chem. Abstr. XXXVI. 8428/1 (Index), *Water repellency. (See also Waterproofness.) 1955Industr. & Engin. Chem. Sept. 1980/1 Some [finishes] add functional qualities, such as water repellency and shrink resistance. 1972McGraw-Hill Yearbk. Sci. & Technol. 217/2 Water birds..were generally regarded as having attained perfection in water repellency.
1922Encycl. Brit. XXX. 59/1 The surface of the dope should be *water-repellent. 1952R. A. Pingree in H. C. Speel Textile Chemicals & Auxiliaries xx. 408 An acetate rayon fabric may tolerate a water repellent which is unacceptable to either viscose rayon or cotton. 1974P. de Vries Glory of Hummingbird (1975) xv. 231 Testing a line of water-repellent trenchcoats. 1980Gohl & Vilensky Textile Sci. vii. 132 Water repellent finishes can be divided into two categories: 1. water-proof finishes... 2. water resistant finishes which delay the absorption and penetration of water and..allow a degree of permeability to air.
1935C. Ellis Chem. Synthetic Resins I. xxxi. 656 A variation of this method, designed to improve the *water-resistance of the resins. 1966McGraw-Hill Encycl. Sci. & Technol. XIII. 541/1 Linseed oil..was used to impart water- and weather-resistance.
1934Webster, *Water-resistant. 1946Nature 19 Oct. 562/2 The water-proofing of soft fibre boards, surface treatment with a paraffin wax emulsion giving a water-resistant surface. 1971C. Bonington Annapurna South Face 243 For high-altitude work it is not essential that it [sc. a garment] should be waterproof, but it needs to be water-resistant. 1980Water-resistant [see water-repellent adj. and n. above].
1913W. McCulloh Conservation of Water v. 99 The work done by the State of New York toward the..conservation of her *water resources is an exemplification of what may be done by..other states. 1971P. Gresswell Environment 218 Twenty-nine River Authorities..are responsible for husbanding the water resources of entire river basins, from springs and streams to final exit into the sea. 1976National Observer (U.S.) 10 Apr. 1/3 A water-resources engineer with the World Bank. 1980Jrnl. R. Soc. Arts Feb. 129/2 Workshops dealt with subjects ranging from water resource management to human resource management.
1793Columbian Museum (Philadelphia) Jan. 16 The purchase of the land, including the farm buildings..and *water rights, &c. would probably be at fifteen dollars per acre. 1891R. Wallace Rural Econ. Austral. & N.Z. xiii. 213 The question of water-right is also one urgently demanding legislation in Victoria. 1920W. H. Mallock Mem. Life & Lit. xii. 175 He would..have had to buy from the neighbouring peasants certain way-leaves and water-rights. 1950N.Y. Times 20 Apr. 1/3 He also said that bill threatened their water rights.
a1637B. Jonson Discov. (1640) 97 Nay, if it were put to the question of the *Water-rimers workes, against Spencers; I doubt not, but they would find more Suffrages.
1653Walton Angler viii. 162 The Carp, if he have *water room and good feed, will grow to a very great bigness and length.
1675H. Teonge Diary (1825) 36 We have made a sayle for the starne of the ship, called a *water sayle. 1794Rigging & Seamanship I. 127 Sloop's Water-Sail ..It is ocasionally spread under the boom of the main-sail in fair winds. 1883Man. Seamanship for Boys 38 A watersail sets under the spanker-boom end. 1925A. B. Armitage Cadet to Commodore 15 We dropped down on the tide, aided by a large watersail over the stern, to Garden Reach. 1933P. Mitchell Deep Water 201 [At Calcutta] the mud pilot..brought with him a water sail, like a small royal with the foot weighted and a rope fastened to each corner; this was lowered over the stern into the water.
1655Marquis of Worcester Cent. Inv. §55 A double *Water-scrue, the innermost to mount the water, and the outermost for it to descend. 1773W. Emerson Princ. Mech. (ed. 3) 228 Archimedes's water screw. 1823P. Nicholson Pract. Builder 409 The Water Screw Pump.
1708J. C. Compl. Collier (1845) 21 Water which rises at the Coal-Shaft, may run into this *Water or half Shaft, to be drawn there by Horses or Water Wheels. 1869R. B. Smyth Gold Fields Victoria 625 Water-shaft, the drainage-shaft, usually the deepest shaft in a mine. 1886Cheshire Gloss., Water-shaft, salt-making term. A shaft sunk to collect the fresh water near the main shaft.
1577Holinshed Chron. II. 1039/2 On the Saterday after,..[1382], earely in the morning, chaunced an other earthquake, or as some write, a *watershake, beeyng so vehemente, that it made the Shippes in the hauens to beate one againste an other, [etc.]. 1581A. Anderson Serm. at Paules Crosse 101 That vniuersall Earthquake, and like watershake, whiche draue vs into present feare.
1805R. W. Dickson Pract. Agric. I. 537 On a red greet, and *water-shaken soil. 1810J. Bailey Agric. Durham 9 A moist soft loam..known by the..epithet of ‘water shaken’.
1470Stat. Rolls Irel. 10 Edw. IV c. 19 Repairerount le dit Gourge..come necessite requiert lessauntz..en la miente del file del auaunt dit ewe xxiiij. pees en laiour appelle le Kynges shard aultrement appelle le *Watersharde. Ibid., Watirshard.
1844Zoologist II. 421 A line running from Loch Spey to Loch Monar, the course of which is regulated by the *water-shears between the east and west coasts. 1847Blackw. Mag. LXII, 162 The water-shier between the Spey and the Dee.
1546Gassar's Prognost. c iij b, The cloudy sterre that is in the beginning of y⊇ *Water sheder of the Waterer [L. apud initium effusionis aquæ Aquarii].
1769A. Menzies Rep. to Commissioners for Annexed Estates (1973) 83 There is not only soil but climate to fight against, as it lies within half a mile of the *water shire of Scotland.
1852Queen Victoria Jrnl. 10 Sept. (1980) 74, I wore a white bonnet, a grey *water silk, and..my plaid scarf over my shoulder. 1926Glasgow Herald 1 Apr. 8/4 The copies are bound in magnificent leather volumes with sheets of water-silks. 1953C. Day Lewis Italian Visit iv. 47 Rosetted oxen move..The loose-kneed watersilk gait of Priestesses vowed to Love.
1839Ure Dict. Arts 748 The overlying *Watersill or sandstone. 1894Northumbld. Gloss., Water-sill, a bed of fine-grained sandstone lying immediately below the great limestone in the south-west of Northumberland.
1798Hull Advertiser 13 Oct. 1/2 An excellent kitchen and scullery, in which there is a pipe for water, a *water sink, with other conveniences. 1890Nature 27 Nov. 93 The water which flows out of Malham Tarn and disappears down a ‘water-sink’ to the south of the tarn is the stream which emerges at Malham Cove. 1908Blackw. Mag. July 93/2 In this white pavement are found all the famous water-sinks that feed the streams far below.
1823Scoresby Jrnl. Whale Fish. 472 *Water-sky, a dark appearance of the atmosphere, near the horizon, indicating clear water below it. 1881tr. Nordenskiöld's Voy. ‘Vega’ I. x. 518 A blue water-sky was still visible out to sea, indicating that open water was to be found there.
1860W. W. Reade Liberty Hall I. v. 77 He listened to their semi-nautical oaths,..and their *water-slang with veneration.
1847Tennyson Princess vii. 198 Spill Their thousand wreaths of dangling *water-smoke. a1903‘Merriman’ Last Hope viii, Through the dazzling white of that which is known on these [Suffolk] coasts as the water-smoke the sky shone a cloudless blue.
1812J. H. Vaux Flash Dict., *Water-sneak, robbing ships or vessels on a navigable river or canal, by getting on board unperceived, generally in the night. The water-sneak is lately made a capital offence.
1906Engineering 21 Dec. 834/2 In this combined grease-eliminator and make-up-*water-softener there is, we understand, very little matter precipitated. 1930L. Munday Mounty's Wife xvii. 207 This has since been all changed owing to the installation of water softeners. 1974Encycl. Brit. Micropædia X. 575/2 Water softeners usually consist of zeolite or an ion-exchange resin in a tank connected directly into the water system. 1974Trade Names Dict. I. 85/1 Calgonite—Water softener.
1909Cent. Dict. Suppl. 1435/3 Other types of *water-softening machines employ the same general principles. 1929A. R. Martin Water Softening: Base-Exchange or Zeolite Process 6 The base-exchange process for water softening should be considered in relation to the quality of the water to be softened. 1964N. G. Clark Mod. Org. Chem. xii. 249 It [sc. ethylene diamine] is used as a solvent, and as an intermediate for agricultural chemicals and ‘water-softening’ agents.
1979Jrnl. R. Soc. Arts Dec. 59/1 Presumably *water-solubility is the property which militates against the accumulation of sizeable deposits of potash (and soda) at, or near, the Earth's surface.
1922*Water-soluble [see fat-soluble adj. s.v. fat n.2 6 c]. 1978N.Y. Times 30 Mar. c7/4 Keep feeding lettuce with a weak application of water-soluble plant foot.
1849J. Glynn Constr. Cranes 56 The *water-space round the ram being full three-fourths of an inch.
1587Golding De Mornay xxii. (1592) 333 Varro reporteth..that Numa vsed *Waterspelling, and had communication with Diuels.
1883Encycl. Brit. XVI. 386 Chloro-spinel, grass-green with a yellowish white streak... *Water-spinel colourless; from Ceylon.
1835Dickens Let. 18 Dec. (1965) I. 109 Our driver..ingeniously drove the party into a ‘*water-splash’. 1844― Mart. Chuz. xxxvi, Yoho! down the pebbly dip, and through the merry water-splash, and up at a canter to the level road again. 1886Bicycling News 1 Oct., Last Saturday, two riders on a tandem tricycle attempted to rush through Shepperton ‘water splash’. 1902C. G. Harper Holyhead Road I. 229 The old road goes over what used to be a water-splash in the deep hollow.
1497Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot. I. 377 Item, that samyn day, in Cambuskynneth, for *water spowngis to the King, iij s. iiij d. 1508Dunbar Tua Mariit Wemen 437, I haif a water spunge for wa, within my wyde clokis, Than wring I it full wylely, and wetis my chekis. 1612Sc. Bk. Rates in Halyburton's Ledger (1867) 292 Watter spounges for chirurgeans.
1950N.Z. Jrnl. Agric. Feb. 193/2 Delustred acetate rayons also *water spot very readily; therefore,..they should never be sprinkled with water and ironed directly, or glazed patches which are difficult to remove will be formed. 1964McCall's Sewing viii. 118/1 Test a scrap of your fabric first to be sure that it does not water-spot.
Ibid. 118/2 Press [silk] with..a piece of tissue paper next to the fabric to prevent *water-spotting.
1944U. P. Hedrick Fruits for Home Garden vi. 51 Such shoots are called suckers, or *water-sprouts, and numbers of them are deleterious. 1976Yankee Apr. 137/2 Thinning out old watersprouts and suckers will promote better fruiting.
1913E. F. Benson Thorley Weir i. 26 There was something so completely satisfying and suitable in this rough river-dress that he would not have added any embellishment to it, nor have expunged a single *water-stain or sun-bleach. 1940Chambers's Techn. Dict. 901/2 Water stain.., a stain for wood, consisting of colouring matter dissolved in water. 1966A. W. Lewis Gloss. Woodworking Terms 114 Water stain, colouring matter or dyes dissolved in water and used to stain wood to the required shade. 1972Gloss. Terms Timber (B.S.I.) 16 Water stain, discoloration caused by water coming into contact with the surface of the converted timber.
1775J. Watson Halifax 548 *Waterstead, the Bed or Course of a river or brook. 1867Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., Water-stead, an old name for the bed of a river. 187.E. Waugh Tufts of Heather, Hermit Cobbler iv, He fell..into th' wayterstid at th' back o' th' house.
1894Westm. Gaz. 10 Apr. 2/3 (letter signed) A Radical Owner of *Water Stock. 1903Daily Chron. 24 Nov. 4/3 Water stocks fell on the decision in regard to the New River dividends.
1884Bower & Scott De Bary's Phaner. 50 Other stomata..which may be called *Water-stomata or -pores. 1585*Water stop [see stop n.2 8 a]. 1759Sterne Tr. Shandy ii. i, The great sluice or water-stop, where the English were terribly exposed to the shot..of St. Roch.
1912Chambers's Jrnl. Apr. 220/2 The towns that cluster about these desert ‘water-stops’. 1945F. H. Hubbard Railroad Avenue ii. 9 Consolidation engines have enormous tenders, but the water stops on Casey's division were far apart, and the water in his tank often would drop rather low if the engine were hauling a heavy train. 1951Archit. Rev. CX. 345 (Advt.), The problem of making watertight expansion joints in flat concrete roofs can be solved by the use of Expandite rubber waterstops. These waterstops were developed in the first place for sealing joints in hydraulic structures and are widely used by hydraulic engineers. 1968Punch 18 Dec. 873/1 My wife keeps urging me to diversify into coolants, sealants, waterstops, mastics and corrosion inhibitors.
1797S. James Voy. 38 The leak was above *water streak.
1833Penny Cycl. I. 436/2 North America possesses an extensive *water-system on the Pacific slope. 1859H. Kingsley G. Hamlyn xix, Having crossed the valley of the Belloury,..I had come on to the water system of another main river.
1704Swift Tale of Tub ii. 59 What is..the Sea, but a Wastcoat of *Water-Tabby?
1928Observer 8 Apr. 6 A Budapest company has just been granted permission..to place *water-taxis for hire on the Danube. 1974Ld. Mancroft Chinaman in Bath xxxix. 182 The water-taxis which could do so much to ease London's traffic problems. 1978New York 3 Apr. 12/1 (Advt.), Water taxis across our incredibly blue waters to other islands.
1877Wood Nature's Teach., Optics ii. 292 An instrument..called the *Water-Telescope. 1883Fisheries Exhib. Catal. 360 Water Telescope, from Bohuslän.
1799J. Dalton in Mem. Lit. & Phil. Soc. Manch. V. ii. 374 For this purpose I took a thermometer tube..and filled it with pure water..From repeated trials agreeing in the result, I find, that the *water thermometer is at the lowest point of the scale it is capable of, that is, water is of the greatest density at 42° ½ of the mercurial thermometer.
1596Shakes. Merch. V. i. iii. 24 There be land rats, and water rats, *water theeues, and land theeues, I meane Pyrats. 1870Morris Earthly Par. III. iv. 304 A Tyrrhenian water-thief.
1976National Observer (U.S.) 3 July 13/6 (Advt.), Portable *water toothpick for travel and the office.
1928G. B. Shaw Intelligent Woman's Guide Socialism lxxxi. 415 The *water torture of the Inquisition, in which the fluid was poured down the victims' throats until they were bloated to death. 1946‘R. West’ Train of Powder (1955) 8 Nuremberg..was also the water-torture, boredom falling drop by drop on the same spot on the soul. 1974L. Deighton Spy Story x. 105 What am I supposed to do, give them the water torture? 1976Times 30 Aug. 8/5 Any individual..is worn down by the Chinese water torture of daily stress. 1983Daily Tel. 12 May 4/8 A former county sheriff..and three former deputies were charged in Houston with using water torture to extract confessions from prisoners.
1887Sir R. H. Roberts In the Shires iii. 37 In rear of the observatory a large *water-tower raised its head. 1887Sci. Amer. 22 Jan. 53/2 The fall of a stand pipe or water tower, at Sheepshead Bay. 1898‘Merriman’ Roden's Corner vi. 56 To the north of the waterworks..the curious may find to-day a few low buildings clustering round a water-tower. 1916A. B. Reeve Poisoned Pen iii. 61 Four engines, two hook-and-ladders, a water-tower, the battalion chief and a deputy are hurrying to that fire.
1615Chapman Odyss. xiv. 477 When the *water-treader [ποντοπόρος νηῦς], farre away Had left the Land. 1855Gentl. Mag. June 582 Mr. Buckingham, the once renowned boy water-treader of Flushing.
1862M. D. Colt Went to Kansas 197 The homeopathic physician was called to see her yesterday, so she is under his treatment, while I have the privilege of giving her all the *water treatment I choose. 1966‘G. Black’ You want to die, Johnny? x. 180 That character who had apologised to himself for using the water treatment on Lee Wat.
a1877Knight Dict. Mech. III. 2646/2 When the fire passes through the tubes, they are properly flues. The term is, however, applied to pipes, whether *water-tubes or fire-tubes, below a certain diameter. 1888Rolleston & Jackson Anim. Life 575 (Crinoidea) Ciliated branched water-tubes depend from the ring and origins of the radial vessels and open into the coelome. 1971B. Scharf Engin. & its Lang. xiv. 204 In forced circulation boilers there is no need for the boiler drum to be above the water tubes.
1875Knight Dict. Mech., *Water-tube Boiler. 1894Westm. Gaz. 18 Oct. 8/2 The Ardent..is fitted with the Thornycroft water-tube boilers. 1963Times 24 May (Suppl.) p. iv/7 It had 64 Babcock and Wilcox watertube boilers and eight sets of turbines coupled to three-phase 331/3-cycle alternators generating at 11,000 volts.
1940H. E. Baughman Aviation Dict. 187/2 *Water Tunnel, a device similar to a wind tunnel, but using water as the fluid in which models are tested. 1965New Scientist 5 Aug. 333/2 The commissioning..of the..outdoor test tank, and the impending completion of a flume (water tunnel), equips Hovercraft Development Limited with an entire range of skirt-testing apparatus. 1969Gloss. Aeronaut. & Astronaut. Terms (B.S.I.) iv. 18 Water tunnel, an apparatus for producing a controlled stream of water or other liquid for fluid dynamic experiments.
1601Holland Pliny xvii. xiii. I. 515 The shoots and suckers that put out at the root, as also other *water-twigs.
1819Encycl. Brit. Suppl. III. 395/1 The yarn produced by this mode of spinning is called *Water Twist. 1839Ure Dict. Arts 366 Fig. 347 is a diagram of Arkwright's original water-frame spinning machine, called afterwards the water-twist frame. 1844G. Dodd Textile Manuf. i. 33 The name ‘water-twist’ arose from the circumstance that..Arkwright's [machine] was worked by a water-wheel. 1878Blakely Dict. Commerc. Inform., Water-twist, a kind of cotton-twist, of which there are common, seconds, and best seconds.
1880Geikie Phys. Geog. ii. 44 By the term *water-vapour, or aqueous-vapour, is meant the invisible steam always present in the air. 1908Westm. Gaz. 31 Jan. 2/1 The latest statement by Sir William Huggins on the existence of water-vapour on Mars is that there is no conclusive proof.
1870Rolleston Anim. Life p. lxxxvi, [In other Mollusca] a multi-ramified *water-vascular system appears to spread itself throughout the body, without becoming directly continuous with the blood-vessels. 1885Riverside Nat. Hist. (1888) I. p. xx, In the jelly-fishes the stomach opens into four or more water-vascular canals or passages.
1867J. Hogg Microsc. ii. iii. 562 There remains..the ambulacral vessels of the Echinodermata. These are frequently termed ‘*water-vessels’.
1894T. B. Middleton in Yachting (Badm. Libr.) II. 146 ‘*Water wags’ and ‘Mermaids’ of Dublin Bay. 1894Field 9 June 838/1 Match for Waterwags, for a cup presented by the Dublin and Wicklow Railway Company.
1815T. Forster Atmos. Phenom. 59 Some of these little cumuli..flying along rapidly between the showers, are..called by the vulgar *water waggons. 1844H. Stephens Bk. Farm I. 251 The ominous scud is the usual harbinger of the rain-cloud, and is therefore commonly called ‘messengers’, ‘carriers’ or ‘water-waggons’. 1904(Amer.) Dialect Notes II. 402 ‘To be on the water wagon’, to abstain from hard drinks. N.Y. 1927Daily Express 3 Feb. 5/2 ‘Have a drink,’ said Roger.., but Red stayed his hand at the decanter. ‘Water-wagon?’ asked Roger, surprised. 1928G. B. Shaw Intelligent Woman's Guide Socialism lxxix. 397 The vast majority of modern drinkers..do not miss the extra efficiency they would enjoy on the water wagon. 1934Bulletin (Sydney) 23 May 41/2 Excuse Harrie drinking soft stuff... He's on the water-waggon at present. 1971R. Dentry Encounter at Kharmel xii. 216 What, no grog? Are you supposed to be on the water waggon, skip?
13..Cursor M. 6389 (Gött.) Þar þai had mekil *watir wan.
1598Sylvester Du Bartas ii. ii. i. Ark 413 The Camell *water-want [Fr. souffre-soif].
1862Ann. Reg. 27 The wilful murder of Edward Atkinson, *water-watcher. 1888Barrie Auld Licht Idylls (1892) 58 ‘Water-watchers,’ as the bailiffs were sometimes called.
1778W. H. Marshall Minutes Agric. 32 Nov. 1775, If possible, mix it perfectly full of sap, but perfectly free from *water-wet. 1804A. Hunter Georg. Ess. VI. 229 The clover..should be perfectly free from water-wet.
1767S. Paterson Another Trav. I. 102 That vile ribaldry called *water-wit. 1863Hawthorne Our Old Home, Up Thames II. 143 The old rough water-wit for which the Thames used to be so celebrated.
1731Flying Post 28 Jan. 2/2 A *Water-Woman was found suddenly dead, and..it was thought she was strangled. 1762Goldsm. Ess., Fem. Warriors, The water-women of Plymouth.
1600Surflet Country Farm vii. xv. 824 The other sort of *water woode is the willow. 1750W. Ellis Mod. Husbandm. II. ii. 139 (E.D.D.) An alder, a withy, a willow or other water-wood hedge.
1871Tylor Prim. Cult. xv. II. 192 Africa displays well the rites of *water-worship.
Ibid. xvi. II. 248 Savage *water-worshippers.
1598Sylvester Du Bartas ii. i. Eden 401 When pale Phlegm, or saffron-colour'd Choler,..print upon our Understanding's Tables; That, *Water-wracks; this other, flamefull Fables. 1658Melrose Regality Rec. (S.H.S.) I. 174 Quhen tymber treis or onie uther fewall or watter wrak cumes doune the river and lands there. 1834Pringle Afr. Sk. ii. 151 The remains of water-wrack..afforded striking proof that at certain seasons this diminutive rill becomes a mighty..flood.
30. Prefixed to names of animals to denote species inhabiting the water, as water-animal, water-bat, water-beast, water-beetle, water-bird, water-butterfly, water-coot, water-eel, water-finch, water-frog, water-gnat, † water-hydra, water-insect, water-louse, water-raven, water-reptile, water-shrew(-mouse), water-shrimp, water-snail, water-toad. Also water-adder, any aquatic serpent resembling an adder; water-antelope = waterbuck; water-ask dial., a newt; water-beetle, a beetle of the group Hydradephaga; water-blackbird, the dipper, Cinclus aquaticus; water-boa, the anaconda; water-boatman, a water-bug of either of the families Notonectidæ or Corixidæ (Corisidæ); water-buffalo = water-cow; water-bug, (a) any heteropterous insect of aquatic habit; (b) U.S. the cockroach, Blatta orientalis; water-bull, a legendary amphibious animal resembling a bull; water-cavy = water-hog; water-chat, a bird of the South American group Fluvicolinæ; water-cow, (a) the common domestic Indian buffalo, Bos bubalus or Bubalus buffelus; (b) a legendary amphibious animal resembling a cow; cf. water-bull; water-crake, † (a) the water-ouzel or dipper, Cinclus aquaticus; (b) the spotted crake, Porzana maruetta; (c) the water-rail, Rallus aquaticus; water-creeper, -cricket, the larva of the stone-fly; water-crow, (a) the dipper, Cinclus aquaticus; (b) the coot, Fulica atra; (c) southern U.S. the snakebird, Plotus anhinga; water-deer, a small Chinese musk-deer, Hydropotes inermis; water-devil, (a) the larva of the great water-beetle, Hydrophilus piceus (Ogilvie 1850); (b) U.S. ‘the dobson or hellgrammite’ (Cent. Dict.); water-doe, a female waterbuck; water-eagle (see quot.); water-eft = water-newt; water-flea, any of the small crustaceans that hop like fleas; water-hog, the capybara; water-junket, an alleged name for the sandpiper; water-lawyer jocular, a shark; water-leech = leech n.2 1; water-lizard, a newt or other lizard-like animal inhabiting the water; water-mite = water-tick; water-moccasin U.S. a venomous aquatic pit viper, Agkistrodon piscivorus, found in the southern United States; also, one of several harmless water snakes resembling A. piscivorus; = cotton-mouth s.v. cotton n.1 10 and moccasin 3; water mongoose, a dark brown mongoose, Atilax paludinosus, found in marshes and near rivers in central and southern Africa; water monitor = Nile monitor s.v. Nile; water-moth, a caddis-fly; water-newt, an aquatic newt, a triton; water-opossum = yapock; water-ouzel (see ouzel 2 c); water-ox = water-cow; † water-parrot, some microscopic insect; water-pheasant, (a) the pheasant-tailed jacana, Hydrophasianus chirurgus; (b) the pintail duck; (c) the goosander, Mergus merganser; water-piet (see piet 1 b); water-pipit, Anthus aquaticus; water-puppy = water-dog 3 b; water-rabbit U.S., the swamp-hare of the Mississippi valley, Lepus aquaticus; water-rattle, -rattler, the diamond rattlesnake, Crotalus adamanteus; water-rattle-snake, an incorrect name for the water-viper; water-salamander (see salamander 1 b); water-scorpion, an aquatic bug of the family Nepidæ; water-skater = water-strider below; † water-softling (see quot.); water-strider = pond-skater s.v. pond n. 4; water-thrush, (a) the water-ouzel or dipper; (b) a bird of the American genus Seiurus; water-tick = water-spider; water-tiger, a beetle of the genus Dytiscus or family Dytiscidæ; water tortoise, an aquatic tortoise of the family Pelomedusidæ, native to Africa or South America, esp. Pelomedusa subrufa; water-viper, any poisonous aquatic snake, esp. Ancistrodon piscivorus; water-weasel [= G. wasserwiesel], an otter; water-wolf [cf. G. wasserwolf], a rapacious aquatic animal; in quots. applied to the pike [cf. L. lupus] and the otter.
1398Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xviii. ix. (1495) 759 *Water adders dwelle in brymmes of waters. 14..Nom. in Wr.-Wülcker 705/37 Hic idrus, a watyrnedyre.
1691Ray Creation i. (1692) 62 Fishes and other *Water-Animals cannot abide without the use of it [sc. air].
1875W. H. Drummond Large Game S. & S.E. Afr. 367 The *water-antelope (Kobus ellipsiprymnus).
1820Marmaiden of Clyde xviii. in Edin. Mag. VI. 423 The *water-asks, sae cauld and saft, Crawl'd ower the glittie flure. 1892J. Barlow Irish Idylls v. 114 She's not the fool, anyway, to be dhrinkin' out o' wather-pools thick wid them black wather⁓asks, that 'ud lep down your throath as soon as look at you.
1681Grew Musæum i. §iv. i. 54 Barlæus mentions a *Water-Bat, which the Natives of Brasile call Guacucua.
1398Trevisa Barth. De P.R. v. xxxv. (1495) 147 Some *water beestes doon brethe as the dolphyn. c1440Promp. Parv. 372/2 Otur, watyr beest, lutricius.
1668Charleton Onomast. 46 Hydrocantharus, the *Water-beetle. 1771Phil. Trans. LXI. 316 The dytisci or water-beetles. 1826Kirby & Sp. Entomol. IV. xlv. 254 The common water-beetle (Dytiscus marginalis).
c1440Promp. Parv. 127/1 Doppar, or dydoppar, *watyr byrde, mergulus. 1803Leyden Scenes Infancy ii. xxii, The water-birds..Oft rouse the peasant from his tranquil dream. 1917Blackw. Mag. Nov. 645/2 Large water-birds rose from the river.
1678Ray Willughby's Ornith. ii. xv. 235 It is as big, or a little bigger than a *Water-Blackbird, or Crake.
1802Shaw Gen. Zool. III. 345 *Water Boa. Boa Enydris. 1863Bates Nat. Amazons iii. (1864) 60 The hideous Sucurujù, or water boa (Eunectes Murinus), which sometimes attacks man. 1871Kingsley At Last xiii, The Huillia, Anaconda, or Water-boa, bears only a few large round spots.
1815Kirby & Sp. Entomol. iv. (1818) I. 109 The *water boatman, (Notonecta glauca, L.) an insect related to the Cimicidæ..made me suffer still more severely. 1910G. H. Carpenter in Encycl. Brit. XIII. 261/1 The Notonectidæ, or ‘water-boatmen’... By means of the oar-like hind-legs they swim actively through the water with the ventral surface upwards.
1894Outing XXIV. 438/1 A rude wooden plow,..drawn by the clumsy Asiatic or *water buffalo.
1750Glandville in W. Ellis Mod. Husb. IV. ii. 71 Of *Water-bugs.—I have made Observations on Bugs of different Kinds in stagnate Waters. 1778J. Carver Trav. N. Amer. xviii. 493 The Water Bug..has many legs, by means of which it passes over the surface of the water with such incredible swiftness that [etc.]. 1816Kirby & Sp. Entomol. xviii. (1818) II. 364 The common water-bug (Gerris lacustris, Latr.), though it never goes under water, will sometimes swim upon the surface. 1868L. M. Alcott Little Women xii, Fred..did his best to upset both [the other boats] by paddling about in a wherry like a disturbed water-bug. 1901Lee Bacon Houseboat on Nile 38 Why did we want hedgehogs on a dahabéah? Nothing more or less than that they are supposed to eat water-bugs.
1726–31Waldron Descr. Isle of Man (1865) 43 The *water-bull. 1815Scott Let. to Morritt 22 Dec., The persuasion of the solitary shepherds who approach its [a lake's] banks, is, that it is tenanted by a very large amphibious animal called by them a water-bull. 1901Rhys Celtic Folklore I. iv. 284 The water-bull or tarroo ushtey, as he is called in Manx,..is described as a sort of bull disporting himself about the pools and swamps.
1668Charleton Onomast. 39 Perla..the Dragon-Fly, or Adders-Boult, and *Water-Butterflies. 1681Grew Musæum i. §vii. i. 157 Water-Butterfly, because they most frequent Rivers and watry places.
1885Riverside Nat. Hist. (1888) V. 82 The gigantic *Water Cavy, or Capybara.
1837Swainson Nat. Hist. Birds II. 5 The *water-chats (Fluvicolinæ), which seem to connect the tyrant shrikes to the flycatching family.
1852D. M. Moir Poet. Wks. II. 155 On the lakelet blue, the *water-coot Oar'd forth with her sable young.
1827Scott Jrnl. 23 Nov., A set of his kinsmen,..believing that the fabulous *Water Cow inhabited a small lake near his house, resolved to drag the monster into day. 1895Antiquary July 217 A water-cow is said to inhabit St. Mary's Loch near Yarrow.
1678Ray Willughby's Ornith. ii. vii. 149 The Water-Ouzel or *Water-Crake: Merula aquatica. 1802Montagu Ornith. Dict., Ouzel-Water... Provincial, Water Crake. 1811P. Hawker Diary (1893) I. 35, I knocked down 15 snipes and 2 water crakes.
1837J. Kirkbride Northern Angler 35 The Stone Fly..is bred from an insect, found under large stones in the river, called the water cricket, or *creeper.
c1711Petiver Gazophyl. vii. Tab. 70 *Water Cricket,..This is a slow creeping Insect found at the bottom of Ponds amongst the Weeds. 1855Kingsley Glaucus (1878) 207 The most interesting of all the tribes of the Naiads..are the little water-cricket.
1398Trevisa Barth. De P.R. v. xl. (1495) 156 Some fowles haue galles pryuely hydde in a gutte as culuours or douues and *water crowes and swallowes. 1544Turner Avium Præcip. B 3, Morpetenses..cornicem uocant aquaticum [marg. a water craw]. 1661Lovell Hist. Anim. & Min. 146 The Water Crow..the skinne of which is used to be worne upon the stomach causing concoction. 1804T. Bewick Brit. Birds II. 16 Water Ouzel. Water Crow, Dipper, or Water Piot. 1882Proc. Berwick. Nat. Club IX. 504 Of the Thrush family, the Dipper or Watercrow frequented all the streams.
1877–82Cassell's Nat. Hist. III. 63 The Chinese *Water Deer. Hydropotes inermis.
1850R. G. Cumming Hunter's Life S. Afr. (1902) 121/2 A troop of beautiful *water does.
1891Century Dict., *Water eagle, the fish hawk or osprey. (Rare.) 1895Rider Haggard Heart of World xxv. (1899) 340 Here and there a human corpse, over which already the water-eagles began to gather.
1447Bower Fordun's Scotichron. xiv. xxxi. (1759) II. 376 Als sikir for to hald as a *water eeil.
1768G. White Selborne, To Pennant 27 July, The *water-eft has not, that I can discern, the least appearance of any gills.
a1400Nominale (Skeat) 793 Freseie et pynceuole, Nytcrowe and *watirfynche.
1585Higins Junius' Nomencl. 74/2 Pulex aquaticus,..a *water flea. 1752J. Hill Hist. Anim. 52 The smooth short-horned Dytiscus..is called by some Pulex aquaticus, the water Flea. 1866E. C. Rye Brit. Beetles 66 The Gyrini, commonly known as ‘water-fleas’, ‘whirlwigs’, or ‘whirligigs’.
a1050Chrodegang's Rule (Napier) 96 *Wæterfrocgan hwilon hi ma ᵹesihð of wætere, & swaþeah secað to fullicum morseohtrum. 1561J. Daus tr. Bullinger on Apoc. (1573) 225 b, They play the waterfrogs, singyng croake croake. 1655Walton Angler xx. (1661) 242 Lebault allows Water-frogs to be good meat..if they be fat. 1731Catesby Nat. Hist. Carolina II. 70 The Water-Frog.
1877Wood Nature's Teach., Usef. Arts xiii. 467 The common *Water-gnat (Gerris), which may be seen in almost any piece of fresh water.
1774Goldsm. Nat. Hist. III. 191 The Capibara resembles an hog of about two years old,..some naturalists have called it the *Water-hog. 1865Tylor Early Hist. Man. x. 291 He had loaded his stomach with water-hog.
1717Parnell Battle Frogs & Mice i. 110 Lo! from the deep a *Water-Hydra rose.
1706Phillips (ed. Kersey), Notonecta, certain *water Insects, not much unlike small Beetles. 1774Goldsm. Nat. Hist. VI. 166 Whether it be that they [gold and silver fish] feed on the water-insects, too minute for our observation, or [etc.].
1852Macgillivray Brit. Birds IV. 351 Actitis Hypoleucos. The White-breasted Weet-weet. Common Sandpiper. Willywicket. *Water Junket. Fiddler.
1794Sporting Mag. III. 50 A *water-lawyer, or, in plainer terms a shark was caught last month near Workington.
1382Wyclif Prov. xxx. 15 *Water lechis two ben doȝtris, seiende, Bring on, bring on. c1460J. Russell Bk. Nurture 874 His shon or slyppers [to be] as browne as is þe waturleche.
1608Topsell Serpents 212 Of the Nevte or *Water Lizard. 1646Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. iii. xiv. 139 Such an humidity is observed in Newtes, or water-Lizards. 1885Riverside Nat. Hist. (1888) III. 429 The family of water-lizards, the Varanidæ.
1750Glandville in W. Ellis Mod. Husb. IV. ii. 71 Of *Water-lice.—I have often seen these, in stagnate Waters... They are very swift in Motion. 1774Goldsm. Nat. Hist. VII. 246 The wood-louse, the water-louse, and the scorpion never acquire wings.
1750Glandville in W. Ellis Mod. Husb. IV. ii. 72 Of *Water-maggots, or Grubs.—I have seen various kinds of these in stagnate Waters.
1816Kirby & Sp. Entomol. xxiii. (1818) II. 365 The little *water-mites (Hydrachna) may be seen in every pool..working their little legs with great rapidity.
1821T. Nuttall Jrnl. Trav. Arkansa ix. 216 The other frequents water, and is called the *water-mockasin. 1842,1853[see moccasin 3]. 1884‘Mark Twain’ Huck. Finn xviii. 169 If you'll come down into de swamp I'll show you a whole stack of water-moccasins. 1931[see copperhead 1 b]. 1976National Observer (U.S.) 7 Aug. 8/5 Most of his patients have been bitten by one of the three pit vipers—rattlesnakes, copperhead moccasins, or water moccasins.
1919F. W. Fitzsimons Nat. Hist. S. Afr.: Mammals II. 26 The *Water Mungoose is common throughout South Africa, and extends north as far as the Equator. 1971Stand. Encycl. S. Afr. III. 246/2 The marsh or water mongoose..inhabits thick vegetation along river-banks and marshes over the greater part of Africa south of the Sahara.
1947J. Stevenson-Hamilton Wild Life S. Afr. xxxv. 316 Varanus niloticus, or the *water monitor, is found in reeds and rocks, close to the water's edge. 1974M. Hastings Dragon Island v. 47 The water monitor can grow to more than seven feet.
1668Charleton Onomast. 58 Tinea aquatica, the *Water-Moth. 1854A. Adams, etc. Man. Nat. Hist. 216 The Water-Moths and their larvæ are well known to the angler as bait, under the names of Caddice-Flies and Caddice-Worms. Ibid. 219 Water-Moths (Phryganeidæ).
1668Charleton Onomast. 26 Lacerta Venenata aquatica, the *Water Newt or Evet. 1768G. White Selborne, To Pennant 18 June, The salamandra aquatica of Ray (the water-newt or eft) will frequently bite at the angler's bait. 1858Wood Common Obj. Country iv. (1860) 48 Two species of these creatures are found in this country, the common Water-Newt and the Smooth Newt.
1846Waterhouse Mammalia I. 533 The Yapock, or *Water-Opossum.
1863W. C. Baldwin Afr. Hunting viii. 356, I had selected eight of my best *water-oxen. 1884Littell's Living Age CLXI. No. 2077. 88 Water-oxen turned up their noses at us.
1771Phil. Trans. LXI. 242 The *water parrot..is represented..as hermaphrodite.
1781–2T. Jefferson Notes Virginia (1787) 118 (List of birds) *Water-pheasant. 1815Sporting Mag. XLV. 256 A water pheasant, a bird not very common, was shot..near Lewes. 1900Pollok & Thom Sports Burma ii. 34 The water-fowl..are very numerous, but none of them are worth mentioning excepting the water-pheasant.
1881Dresser List European Birds 13 Anthus spinotella, *Water-Pipit. 1896A. G. Butler Brit. Birds I. 205 The Water-Pipit. Anthus spipoletta, Linn.
1859Bartlett Dict. Amer. (ed. 2), Water-Dogs,..; sometimes called *Water-puppies and Ground-puppies. 1876Forest & Stream 20 July VI. 385/3 The water puppy (Menobranchus lateralis) inhabits the lake [Erie].
1864Webster, *Water-rabbit.
1877–82Cassell's Nat. Hist. IV. 317 The *Water-rattle..abounds in East Florida, the Gulf States, and Mexico.
1736Mortimer in Phil. Trans. XXXIX. 254 This Sort is commonly called in Carolina, the *Water Rattle-Snake, not that it hath a Rattle, but from the Likeness of its Colour, and its Bite being as mortal.
1601Holland Pliny xi. xxxvii. I. 332 Some reasonlesse creatures..are by nature bald, as..certaine *water Ravens [L. corvi aquatici].
1825Scott Betrothed xxiii, Watching for such small fish or *water-reptiles as might chance to pass by its lonely station.
1681Grew Musæum i. §vii. iii. 176 The *Water-Scorpion..may be easily known by its pointed Tail. 1753Chambers' Cycl. Suppl. s.v. Scorpion, Water Scorpion, scorpio palustris,..is a very thin and light little creature, yet is but a very slow mover. 1826Kirby & Sp. Entomol. IV. xxxviii. 55 The water-scorpion tribe. 1861Hulme tr. Moquin-Tandon ii. iv. i. 226 The Grey Nepa (Nepa Cinerea, Linn.), commonly called Water Scorpion or Water Spider.
1769G. White Selborne, To Pennant 8 Dec., De Buffon, I know, has described the *water shrew-mouse; but still I am pleased to find you have discovered it in Lincolnshire. 1770Pennant Brit. Zool. Illustr. IV. 83 Water Shrew-mouse. 1771― Syn. Quadrupeds 308 Water Shrew. 1860Gosse Rom. Nat. Hist. 215 Almost the tiniest of all quadrupeds, the water-shrew.
1750Glandville in W. Ellis Mod. Husb. IV. ii. 72 Of the *Water-shrimp.—I have seen a Sort of Insect, in stagnate Waters, to swim on his Side in a swift Motion, almost in Shape like a Sea-shrimp, very transparent. 1883G. C. Davies Norfolk Broads iii. 21 The water-shrimp is the favourite bait for them [perch].
1941Steinbeck & Ricketts Sea of Cortez xvi. 164 We had sat beside the little pool and watched..the *water-skaters. 1977Country Life 26 May 1394/3 All you had to do was brush aside the green weed and the spider-like ‘water skaters’ and bow down to slake your thirst.
1562Turner Herbal ii. 52 Made lyke a litle *water snayle or a crooked rammis horne. 1655Moufet & Bennet Health's Improv. xii. 109 Water-rails..feed upon water-snails and water-flies. 1835–6Todd's Cycl. Anat. I. 626/1 Examining the young of the viviparous water-snail.
1656W. Dugard tr. Comenius' Gate Lat. Unl. §158. 47 There are also Sea-spiders, having neither bloud, nor fat, nor prickles (they call them *Water-softlings).
1952J. Clegg Freshwater Life Brit. Isles 197 The Pond Skaters or *Water Striders..are larger creatures. 1973Water-strider [see pond-skater].
1668Charleton Onomast. 108 Trynga..the *Water-Thrush. 1808–13A. Wilson & Bonaparte Amer. Ornith. (1831) II. 125 Turdus Aquaticus, Wilson. Water Thrush. 1872Coues Key N. Amer. Birds 106 Seiurus noveboracensis. Water Thrush. Ibid., S. ludovicianus. Large-billed Water Thrush.
1864Webster, *Water-tick. 1870P. M. Duncan Blanchard's Transf. Insects 436 The Hydrachnidæ, or water ticks or mites.
1889M. E. Bamford Up & Down Brooks 59 Those beetles known as the *Water-tigers, or Dytiscidæ.
1750Glandville in W. Ellis Mod. Husb. IV. ii. 69, I have seen a *Water-toad to ride a Carp till he has starved it to Death. 1774Goldsm. Nat. Hist. VII. 106 Of this animal there are several varieties; such as the Water and the Land Toad... The water toad is not so large as the other.
1835A. Smith Diary 11 Mar. (1939) I. 309 Water has been getting more scarce every year. They eat the *water tortoise. 1935Discovery Nov. 330/2 Water tortoises..lay basking on the lily pads. 1974Stand. Encycl. S. Afr. X. 527/1 In Southern Africa there are both land and water tortoises.
1736Mortimer Nat. Hist. Carolina in Phil. Trans. XXXIX. 254 Vipera Aquatica: The *Water Viper.
1611Cotgr. s.v. Belette, An Otter, or *water Weesill. 1674tr. Scheffer's Lapland 140 There are found water-weezels, red and white, chiefly in the pools near the Sea. 1834Medwin Angler in Wales II. 162 No animal is so hard-biting as an otter... None but a very varmint dog..will face one of these water-weazels a second time.
1606S. Gardiner Bk. Angling 26 Sanguinarie souldiers, the Pike and *water-wolues of the Ocean of this worlde. 1865Kingsley Herew. xxix. note, Innumerable eels, great water-wolves and pickerel perches [etc.]. 1907Athenæum 10 Aug. 158/2 The poor otter, against which, as the ‘water-wolf’, ruthless war is waged.
31. In combinations denoting vegetable growths that live in water, as water-frond, water-fruit, water-herb, water-herbage, water-plant, water shrub; also prefixed to plant-names to designate species or varieties that live in water (or, sometimes, that contain or emit water), as water-avens, water-chickweed, water-crowfoot, water-figwort, water gladiole, water-gladiolus, water-orchid, water-palm, water-ranunculus, water-reed, water-rush, water-speedwell, water-tupelo. Also † water agrimony (see agrimony 2 c); water-aloe = water-soldier; water-apple, the sweet-sop, Anona squamosa; water archer (see archer 6); water-ash, any of several North American ash trees, esp. Fraxinus caroliniana; also = box elder s.v. box n.1 3 b; water-bean, the Egyptian water-lily, Nelumbium speciosum; water-beech, (a) the American plane-tree, Platanus occidentalis; (b) the American hornbeam, Carpinus caroliniana; water-betony = water-figwort; water-blinks (see blinks 2); water-blob dial., a name for the marsh-marigold and similar plants; water-blossom = water-bloom 2; water-buttercup (see buttercup 2); water-caltrop (see caltrop 3); water-cat's-tail = cat's-tail 2 b; water-chestnut, the saligot; † water dragon, Calla palustris; water-dropwort (see dropwort 2); water-elder, the guelder rose; water-elm = planer-tree; water-feather (-foil) = water-violet; water-fern (see osmund2 2); water flag (see flag n. 1 b); water-flannel, a fresh-water alga, Conferva crispa, the matted filaments of which resemble flannel; water germander (see germander); water gillyflower = water-violet; water gum, a name for various trees of the Australian genera Tristania and Callistemon; water-gut, an alga, Ulva enteromorpha, which when floating resembles the intestines of an animal; water-hemlock (see hemlock n. 1 c); water-hemp (see hemp n. 5); water-horehound (see horehound 1 b); water hyacinth, an aquatic herb, Eichhornia crassipes, of the family Pontederiaceæ, native to tropical America and bearing large blue flowers; water-hyssop (see quot.); water-lemon, the edible fruit of a species of passion-flower, Passiflora laurifolia; water-lentil (see lentil 1 b); water-lettuce, the tropical duckweed, Pistia Stratiotes; water-locust, a species of locust-tree, Gleditschia monosperma, growing in watery or swampy ground; † water-mango (see mango 3); water maple = red maple (see maple 1 b and red maple s.v. red a. 17 d); water-milfoil (see milfoil 2); water-moss, a moss of the aquatic genus Fontinalis; water-net, a fresh-water alga, Hydrodictyon utriculare; water-nut = water-chestnut; water-oats = wild rice (rice n.2 4); water-pennywort (see pennywort 2); water-pimpernel (see pimpernel 3 b); water-plantain (see plantain1 2); water-purpie Sc., brooklime, Veronica Beccabunga; water-purslane (see purslane 2); water-radish (see quots.); water-rice = wild-rice, rice n.2 4; † water-rose = water-lily; water sallow (see quot.); † water-shield, a plant of the sub-order Cabombaceæ, having shield-like leaves; water-smartweed, the American plant Polygonum acre; water-sorrel (see sorrel n.1 1 b); water-starwort (also -star, -stargrass) (see starwort 3); water-target = water-shield; water-torch, the reed-mace, Typha latifolia; water-trefoil, the bogbean or buckbean; water-violet [= G. wasserveil, -viole], the feather-foil, Hottonia palustris; water-withe, -withy, Vitis caribæa of the W. Indies; water-yarrow = water-violet.
1731Miller Gard. Dict. s.v. Aloides, Aloides;..Stratiotes foliis Aloes semine longo... The *Water-Aloe, or Fresh-Water Soldier. 1855Anne Pratt Flower. Pl. V. 192 Stratiotes aloides (Water-Soldier)..is often called Water Aloe.
1696Sloane Catal. Plant. Jamaica 205 *Water-Apple, or Sweet-Apple. 1760J. Lee Introd. Bot. App. 305 Apple, Water, Annona.
1709J. Lawson New Voy. Carolina 93 The *Water-Ash is brittle. 1717Petiveriana iii. 185 Water-Ash. Is brittle, the Bark is Food for the Bevers. 1819E. Dana Geogr. Sk. 171 The soil is..thickly covered with timber; such as various species of oak and water ash. 1958G. A. Petrides Field Guide to Trees & Shrubs 35 Water Ash... A small tree of southern swamps.
1777Lightfoot Flora Scot. I. 274 Geum..rivale. Red *Water Avens. 1832Lytton Eugene Aram i. vi, The common enchanter's night-shade, the silver weed, and the water-aven [sic]. 1883Longman's Mag. July 308 The marshy water-avens has exactly the same dusky purplish-yellow tint as the marshy comarum.
1846Lindley Veg. Kingd. 414 Nelumbiaceæ. *Water Beans. 1850Ogilvie, Water-bean.
1770J. R. Forster tr. Kalm's Trav. N. Amer. I. 67 Platanus occidentalis, the *water-beech. 1852C. Morfit Tanning & Currying (1853) 93 It takes the name of buttonwood, sycamore, plane-tree, and water-beech, according to locality.
1578Lyte Dodoens i. xxxi. 44 Called..in English Broune wurte, and *Water Betony. 1782W. Curtis Brown-tail Moth 6 Others..as the Phalæna Verbasci, or Water Betony Moth, which appears to be equally fond of the Mullein and Water Betony. 1860Mayne Expos. Lex., Water betony.
1821Clare Vill. Minstrel I. 77 And sigh with anxious, eager dream, For *water-blobs amid the stream.
1884W. Phillips in Trans. Shropshire Archæol. Soc. VII. 285 Though the appearance of the ‘*water-blossom’ has often been observed and examined, very little is known of the causes from which it originates. 1906Rep. Brit. Assoc. Adv. Sci. 759 Microcystis roseopersicinus..formed a striking pink ‘water blossom’.
1870Blackw. Mag. Oct. 469/2 Those long sweeping rushy stalks which bear the pretty white blossom called the *water-buttercup.
1597Gerarde Herbal ii. cclxxxiv. 676 *Water Caltrops hath long slender stalkes, growing vp and rising from the bottome of the water. 1681Grew Musæum ii. §iii. ii. 232 The Water-Caltrop. Tribulus aquaticus.
1658Rowland tr. Moufet's Theat. Ins. i. xiv. 969 The eyes are black, as the horns are also, which are swoln like *water-cats-tails.
1854A. Adams etc. Man. Nat. Hist. 402 The *Water-Chesnut (Trapa natans). 1870Pharmaceut. Jrnl. 13 Aug. 125/1 The name of ‘water chestnuts’ has been applied to the fruits of several species of Trapa.
1760J. Lee Introd. Bot. 271 Callitriche, Star-Headed *Water-Chickweed.
c1550Lloyd Treas. Health I 5, *Watercrowfote stamped wyth crommes of bread and a plaster made thereof taketh awaie the heate of the stomake. 1902Cornish Naturalist Thames 14 In the shallows grow water-crowfoot, with waving green hair under water.
1578Lyte Dodoens iii. vi. 322 Dracunculus palustris,..in Englishe, *water Dragon or Marshe Dragon.
1597Gerarde Herbal iii. lxxii. 1237 Sambuca palustris, the *water Elder, groweth by running streames and water courses. 1650[W. Howe] Phytol. Brit. 108 Sambucus aquatica..Water Elder. 1838Loudon Arboretum II. 1039 Viburnum Opulus. The Guelder Rose..Marsh Elder, Rose Elder, Water Elder.
1820J. C. Gilleland Ohio & Mississippi Pilot 257 *Water elm in marshes, generally in the rear of rich bottoms. 1903‘O. Henry’ in McClure's Mag. Dec. 144/1 [I] noticed a rabbit-hawk sitting on a dead limb in a water-elm. 1930,1976Water elm [see planer-tree].
1818T. Nuttall Genera N. Amer. Pl. I. 120 Hottonia..*Water-feather.
1860Mayne Expos. Lex., *Water-Figwort, Greater, common name for the Scrophularia aquatica.
1849Balfour Man. Bot. §1129 Conferva crispa, called *Water-flannel.
1898H. G. Wells War of Worlds ii. vi. 242 Its swiftly-growing and Titanic *water-fronds speedily choked both these rivers.
1930T. S. Eliot tr. St.-J. Perse's Anabasis 65 Eaters of insects, of *water fruits.
1578Lyte Dodoens i. lxxi. 106 The second [kind of floating weed is called]..in English *Water Gillofer. 1597Gerarde Herbal ii. cclxxxvi. 679 Water Gilloflower, or Water Violet, is thought to be colde and drie.
Ibid. i. xxi. 27 *Water Gladiole groweth in standing pooles, motes, and water ditches.
1760J. Lee Introd. Bot. 270 Butomus. Flowering Rush, or *Water Gladiolus.
1847Leichhardt Jrnl. xii. 387 Long hollows surrounded with drooping tea-trees and the white *water-gums. 1898Morris Austral English 181 Various other trees not of the genus Eucalyptus are also sometimes popularly called Gums, such as..Broad leaved Water Gum, Tristania suaveolens, Smith; Water Gum, Callistemon lanceolatus, De C.; Tristania laurina, T. neriifolia, R. Br.
c1440Promp. Parv. 36/1 Byllerne, *watyr herbe, berula. 1870Hooker Stud. Flora p. x, Nymphæaceæ..Water-herbs; flowers showy.
1844Zoologist II. 499 Then speedily appeared a crop of *water-herbage.
1897H. J. Webber in Bull. U.S. Dept. Agric.: Bot. XVIII. 13 The *water hyacinth is becoming a serious menace to navigation. 1927E. Thompson Indian Day xiv. 111 A colony of water hyacinth had rooted itself..where deep water still remained. 1979London Rev. Bks. 25 Oct. 5/3 In this closing scene, the water hyacinths proceed towards the sea.
1864Grisebach Flora W. Ind. Isl. 788 *Water-hyssop, Herpestis Monnieria.
1785Martyn Lett. Bot. xxvii. (1794) 426 Another sort, called *Water Lemon in the West Indies, has an agreeable acid flavor in the pulp of the fruit. 1864Grisebach Flora W. Ind. Isl. 788 Water-lemon. Passiflora laurifolia and maliformis.
1866Treas. Bot. 897/1 Pistia Stratiotes... Its common West Indian name, *Water Lettuce. 1883Century Mag. July 383/1 The saw-grass, water-lettuce, bonnets, or other aquatic plants which border the fresh-water streams and lakes of Florida.
1817W. Darby Geogr. Descr. Louisiana 354 Gleditsia monosperma. *Water locust.
1803A. Ellicott Jrnl. x. 284 *Water maple..is met with as high as the Wabash. 1822J. Flint Lett. Amer. 131 Dr. Drake.. has stated the usual time of the flowering of the water-maple at a month later. 1822J. Woods Two Yrs.' Resid. Illinois 93 Beech, the prevailing timber, except on the banks of the river; there mostly sycamore, water-maple, and willows. 1912I. S. Cobb Back Home 137 [The] walk..[was] shaded well all the way by water maples.
1760J. Lee Introd. Bot. App. 319 *Moss, Water, Fontinalis. 1774Goldsm. Nat. Hist., Earth xvii. I. 287 The vast increase of water-moss, which flourishes upon marshy grounds.
1849Balfour Man. Bot. §1129 Hydrodictyon utriculatum, *Water-net, has the appearance of a green net. 1904Nature 25 Aug. 396/2 This is likely to be an exaggerated Chinese account of the now well-known water-net (Hydrodictyon utriculatum Roth.).
1617Moryson Itin. iii. 83 When the cloth is taken away, they have set before them..*waternuts (which I did see onely in Saxony) and a loafe of bread cut into shives. 1665Lovell Herball (ed. 2) 464 Water nut, see Saligot.
1819D. B. Warden Acc. United States II. 538 *Water oats, or wild rice (Zizania aquatica) grows in the soft marshes of the eastern parts [of Louisiana].
1889P. H. Emerson Engl. Idyls 160 The water-soldier (Stratiotes aloides), called *water-orchids in parts of England.
1895Rider Haggard Heart of World xxiii. (1899) 312 We beached our boat behind the shelter of some dwarf *water-palms three furlongs below the village.
1768Pennant Brit. Zool. II. 344 The bittern..builds its nest with the leaves of *water plants on some dry clump among the reeds. 1882Vines tr. Sachs' Bot. 693 What was said..on the changes which take place in the air contained in the cavities of water-plants, applies in general also to that of land-plants.
1808Jamieson, *Water-purpie. 1818Scott Br. Lamm. xviii, Cresses or water-purpie, and a bit ait-cake, can serve the Master for breakfast as weel as Caleb. 1827― Chron. Canongate v, I propose also to have..a sort of green-grocer's stall erected in front of my ironmongery wares, garlanding the rusty memorials of ancient times, with cresses, cabbages, leeks, and water purpy.
1753Chambers' Cycl. Suppl. App., *Water radish, the name by which several species of Sisymbrium are sometimes called. 1866Treas. Bot. 955/1 Water Radish. Nasturtium amphibium.
1867H. Macmillan Bible Teach. vii. (1870) 147 The common *water ranunculus, whose white flowers cover the surface of many of our quiet rivulets in June.
1825Scott Talism. xiii, ‘By my crown of lilies, and my sceptre of a specially good *water-reed,’ said Nectabanus, ‘your Majesty is mistaken.’ 1871Rossetti Poems, Staff & Scrip vii, Like water-reeds the poise Of her soft body, dainty thin.
1548Turner Names Herbes (E.D.S.) 56 Nymphea..is called in english *water Roses, & some wyth the Potecaries cal it nenufar. 1601Holland Pliny xxvi. x. II. 256 Of Water-rose, otherwise called Nenuphar.
1826Kirby & Sp. Entomol. III. xxix. 94 The eggs..are inserted in the stem of a *water-rush (Scirpus) or other aquatic plant.
1841Penny Cycl. XX. 359/2 Salix aquatica, *water sallow... This is also a British species.
1846Lindley Veg. Kingd. 412 Cabombaceæ, *Watershields. 1849Balfour Man. Bot. §749 Cabombaceæ, the Watershield Family.
1398Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xvii. xxxi. (Bodl. MS.), Reede gode to many maner vse & amonge *water shrobbes reede is beste.
1784J. Twamley Dairying 117 Water-wort, Water-hemlock, or *Water-skeleton, is esteemed a fatal poison to Horses.
1874A. Gray Man. Bot. (ed. 5) 416 Polygonum acre..(*Water Smartweed).
1777Jacob Catal. Plants 120 Veronica scutellata, Narrow leaved *Water Speedwell, or Brooklime. 1806J. Galpine Brit. Bot. §9 Veronica anagallis, Water Speedwell. 1858A. Irvine Handbk. Brit. Plants 49 The earliest Water-speedwell is the Common Brooklime (Veronica Beccabunga).
1818T. Nuttall Genera N. Amer. Pl. I. 3 Callitriche..*Water-star.
1854Thoreau Walden ix. (1886) 178 A lily, yellow or white..and perhaps a *water-target or two.
1578Lyte Dodoens iv. liii. 513 Typha palustris,..*Water Torche.
1707Mortimer Husb. 144 In Hampshire they sell *Water-Trefoil as dear as Hops, and say that it doth upon all accounts as well. 1789W. Buchan Dom. Med. (1790) 391 The water-trefoil is likewise of great use in this complaint [rheumatism].
1597Gerarde Herbal ii. cclxxxvi. 678 *Water Violet hath long and great iagged leaues, verie finely cut or rent like Yarrowe, but smaller. 1728Bradley Dict. Bot. s.v. Violet, Water-Violets, in Latin, viola aquatica. 1785Martyn Lett. Bot. xvi. (1794) 177 Water Violet has a salver-shaped corolla not fringed. 1866Treas. Bot. 1218/2 Water Violet, Hottonia palustris.
Ibid. 1229/1 *Water-withe.
1855H. G. Dalton Hist. Brit. Guiana II. 206 Water vine, or *water withy.
1597Gerarde Herbal ii. cclxxxvi. 678 Water Milfoile, or *water Yarrow.
32. Med. Designating specific ailments, eruptions, etc., as † water-bladder, water-blister, † water-farcin, water-garget, water-murrain, † water-pang; water-blebs, pemphigus; water-brash, pyrosis; water-canker, a form of stomatitis; water-pox, chicken-pox; water-stroke (see quots.); † water-wheal, a watery blister.
1587L. Mascall Bk. Cattell iii. (1596) 243 Some sheepe will haue a *water bladder vnder their chin,..shepeheards haue no other common remedy but to lance it alitle, and then to tar it.
1818–20E. Thompson Cullen's Nosol. Meth. (ed. 3) 328 Pompholyx; *Water Blebs. 1822–7Good Study Med. (1829) V. 617 Water-blebs.
1895Kipling 2nd Jungle Bk., Red Dog 201 Here would be a heaving mound, like a *water-blister in a whirlpool. 1900J. Hutchinson Archives Surg. XI. 259 Vesications (‘water-blisters’ was the patient's term) broke out.
1802Reece Med. Guide (1850) 531 *Water-brash..is very prevalent in Scotland and Ireland. 1822–7Good Study Med. (1829) I. 165 In the colloquial tongue of England, it is called black-water; in that of Scotland, water-brash, and water-qualm.
1597P. Lowe Disc. Chyrurg. v. xxxiii. (1634) 200 Those Pustules and Ulcers which often⁓times possesse the upper part of the mouth and gums, are named by the Greekes Apthe,..in vulgar the *Water Canker. 1877F. T. Roberts Handbk. Med. (ed. 3) I. 291 Water Canker is a very rare, but dangerous form of stomatitis.
1728Chambers Cycl. s.v. Dropsy, The Ascites, or *Water-Dropsy of the Abdomen, is..what we particularly call the Dropsy.
1706Phillips (ed. Kersey), Farcin or *Water-Farcin, a Swelling under a Horse's Belly and Chaps, caus'd by his Feeding in Low Watery Grounds.
1868Rep. U.S. Commissioner Agric. (1869) 41 A disease called ‘*water garget’ has been slightly prevalent in Merrimack County.
1708Kersey, *Water-Murrain, a Disease in black Cattel.
1633Ford 'Tis Pity iii. iii, Am I at these yeeres ignorant, what the meaning's of Quames, and *Waterpangs be?
1822–7Good Study Med. (1829) III. 61 *Water-pox.
Ibid. II. 409 In the language of..Dr. Golis wasserschlag, or *water-stroke, from its violence. 1899Syd. Soc. Lex., Water stroke, a term for Meningitis, whether primary or secondary, when the effusion of fluid forms very rapidly.
1530Palsgr. 287/1 *Water whele in ones hande, bubette.
†33. Prefixed to certain designations of measures of capacity, to denote the larger measures used for goods sold on board ship (see water-measure), as water bushel, water firlot, water peck; also water met = water-measure. A related use seems to exist in water-fother (quot. 1300), but the sense is obscure.
1300Memoranda K.R. 27 & 28 Edw. I. m. 32 b, Recognouerunt..se teneri Waltero de Langetone..in lxx. carratis plumbi videlicet Waterfother. 15..Burgh Rec. Edin. (1869) I. 14 The watter mett of Leyth sett to Jhone Dow for ij merks. 1546Reg. Privy Council Scot. I. 30 That na ry be sauld dearer nor XXV s the boll and the quhete for XL s the boll watter mete. 1551Burgh Rec. Edin. II. 155 The prouest baillies and counsale ordanis that Jhone Dalmahoy thair seriand and officer of the port and heavin of Leyth in all tymes cuming keip the mesouris callit the watter metts of salt, rye, quheitt and beir and siclyke. 1555Sc. Acts Mary (1814) II. 496/2 Except the watter met to remane according to the vse of the cuntrie. 1615E. S. Britain's Buss in Arber Eng. Garner III. 632 A Water Bushel (that is, five pecks) of Spanish salt, will salt a barrel of herrings. 1630Aldeburgh Rec. in N. & Q. 12th Ser. VIII. 427/1 Paid for Iron worke for 4 water busshells..00 16 00. 1655in Rec. Convent. Burghs Scot. (1878) III. 402 The water firlot for bear and oattis. 1801Farmer's Mag. Jan. 102 Potatoes..from 1s. 2d. to 1s. 4d. per water peck, which is a measure of about fourteen Scots pints.
▸ water-cooler n. attrib. designating light conversation of the sort that takes place at an office water-cooler, typically focusing on popular or topical issues in the news, on television, etc. (cf. scuttle-butt n. c); (also) designating something which is a topic of such conversation, and hence of popular interest.
1979Los Angeles Times 22 Sept. iii. 3/1 (heading) Water cooler conversation Tuesday: ‘What did you think of all the players the Clippers lost?’ 1992U.S. News & World Rep. 18 May 18/1 ‘Nothing in the news is what we call a ‘water cooler’ story’ like the Gennifer Flowers allegations about having an affair with Bill Clinton. 1999Guardian 31 Aug. 17 Any programme of the sub-genre which could loosely be dubbed ‘Watercooler TV’: the TV we actually see fit to discuss with our colleagues and friends the following morning. 2006Globe & Mail (Toronto) 14 Jan. f8/1 With digital recorders that search television schedules and save only programs suiting the user's taste,..‘water-cooler’ conversation about the latest episode of Desperate Housewives may become a thing of the past.
▸ water feature n. (in a garden or public space) an ornamental structure containing water, such as a fountain, pond, etc.
1900Post-Standard (Syracuse, N.Y.) 7 May 5/1 (heading) Elaborate *water features. Among the flowers and foliage plants will be many sparkling fountains to enliven the beauteous scene. 1989A. Aird 1990 Good Pub Guide 371/2 Tables in garden with corner water feature. 2002Independent 24 May 8/8 The craze for water features and rock gardens inspired by television shows has resulted in many beaches being stripped of pebbles and sand.
▸ water sport n. (a) a sport that takes place in or on water; (usu. in pl.) such sports collectively; (b) slang (in pl.), sexual activity that involves urination, esp. urination by one participant on to another.
1842N. Amer. Rev. Oct. 367 Not alone are we indebted to him..for the destruction of this chief of American *water sports. 1969Los Angeles Free Press 25 July 41/6 (advt.) Str actg, attr guy, 35... Dig bike boys, construction types, servicemen, beer, water sports + anything erotic. 1980A. Maupin More Tales of City 49 That's where she hung the swing... Water sports. She was real famous for it... She tinkled on them from up there. While she was swinging. 1992Caravan Mag. Sept. 60/3 Popular here is the strand, where motorists can drive on to the firm sand and where water-sport enthusiasts are continually in action.
▪ II. water, v.|ˈwɔːtə(r)|
Inflected watered, watering. Forms: 1 wæterian, watrian, wætriᵹan, 2 wettrien, watrien, 3 wattren (Orm. -enn), wattre, (wattur), 3–5, 7 Sc. watter, 4 watere, weteri, watrin, watre, 4–5 wetery, wateren, 5 watron, watir, 4– water. pa. pple. 4 y-wetered, i-watred, y-watert.
[OE. wæterian (also ᵹe-), f. wæter water n. Cf. MHG. weȥȥern, mod.G. wässern (dial. wassern), MLG. wateren, weteren, mod.LG. watern, wätern, Du. wateren.]
I. Transitive uses.
1. a. To give a drink of water to (an animal, esp. a horse on a journey); also, to take (cattle) to the water to drink.
c1000ælfric Gen. xix. 3 Hiᵹ awylton þone stan of þam pitte and hi heora orf þær wæterodon. c1175Lamb. Hom. 9 A! hwa is þet mei þet hors wectrien [read wettrien] þe him self nule drinken? c1250Gen. & Ex. 2745 Ðor he comen water to feten, And for to wattren here sep. a1300Cursor M. 5685 Þai com to wattur þar þair fee. c1350Will. Palerne 3234 Þat men miȝt legge him [a horse] mete & wateren atte wille. 1480Cov. Leet Bk. 459 The people of this Citie..euer haue vsed tyll nowe late to water theire horses at the seid pole. 1523–34Fitzherb. Husb. §85 Broken wynded..cometh of rennynge or rydynge ouer moche, and specially shortely after he is watred. a1658Ford, etc. Witch Edmonton iii. i, Get my horse dress'd: give him Oats; but water him not till I come. 1729P. Walkden Diary (1866) 62, I..then foddered and watered our Seed heifer. 1858R. S. Surtees Ask Mamma lxxvii. 336 He pulled up..to get his mare watered and fed. 1891‘R. Boldrewood’ Sydney-side Sax. i, The beasts to be fed and watered. 1908Animal Management (War Office) 289 It has been said that if a desert camel is frequently watered he loses his power of abstinence for long periods.
absol.1643Trapp Comm. Gen. xxvi. 15 They deprived themselves of the benefit of those wells, so that Isaac might not water at them. 1730W. Burdon Gentl. Pocket-Farrier 26 Ever make it a standing Rule to water on the Way before you arrive at the baiting Place. 1842Dickens Amer. Notes xiv, We often stop to water at a roadside inn.
b. fig. and in fig. context.
1597Spenser Sheph. Cal. Nov. 30 Nay, better learne of hem, that learned bee, And han be watered at the Muses well. 1606Shakes. Tr. & Cr. iii. iii. 314 Would the Fountaine of your minde were cleere againe, that I might water an Asse at it. 1611― Cymb. ii. iii. 23 And Phœbus gins arise, His Steeds to water at those Springs on chalic'd Flowres that lyes. 1654Sir A. Johnston (Ld. Wariston) Diary (S.H.S.) II. 267 God's consolations..ar a fountayne,..and they ar tuyse a mercy in wattering ourselves and inaibling us to watter uthers. 1898Meredith Napoleon v. Odes 27 For even a hope in chained desire The vision of it watered thirst.
†c. In the name of a children's game. Obs.
1760–72H. Brooke Fool of Qual. (1809) II. 27 One fault brought me into another after it, like Water my chickens, come clock.
2. To furnish with a supply of water.
a. To supply water to (a company on a journey, an army on the march).
c1000Ags. Ps. lxxvii. 18 [15] He slat stan on westene & wæterode hiᵹ [a 1300 E.E. Psalter, watred am. 1382Wyclif, watride hem]. 1632Lithgow Trav. vii. 301 He payed fiue Sultans of gold for Watering all vs and the Beasts. 1898Daily News 8 Mar. 3/2 In a campaign like this, where we shall always have the river beside us, the water-bottle is almost superfluity... It should be easy to water troops at fixed intervals.
b. To furnish (a ship, fleet, boat) with a supply of fresh water.
1589Bigges Summarie Drake's W. Ind. Voy. 42 After three dayes spent in watering our ships we departed. 1620in Foster Eng. Factories Ind. (1906) 215 Shee waighed [into the] road, and was by them watered, cawked, and supplied with [etc.]. 1748Anson's Voy. i. v. 42 Our next employment was wooding and watering our squadron. 1793Nelson in Nicolas Disp. (ed. 2) I. 322 Lord Hood has gone to water the Fleet. 1844Mrs. Houston Yacht Voy. Texas II. 252 Our last act and deed before we left Galveston, was watering and victualling the Dolphin. 1855Kingsley Westw. Ho! xiii, He seized the town..and watered his ship triumphantly at the enemy's wells.
c. To supply (an engine) with water.
1870in Schele de Vere Americanisms (1872) 359, I question if it be wise in running a railroad to water anything but the engine. 1898Hamblen Gen. Manager's Story xiv. 234 The awkward attempts of the new men to get the few remaining dead engines watered and fired-up.
3. a. To supply water as aliment to (a plant, crop, etc.), esp. by pouring or sprinkling with a watering-can, hose, or the like; to pour or sprinkle water on (soil) to promote the growth of plants (or occas. for other purposes: see e.g. quot. 1699). Also const. in.
c897ælfred Gregory's Past. C. xl. 293 Sumu treowu he watrode [Cotton watrade], to ðæm ðæt hie ðy suiður sceolden weaxan. c1000ælfric Hom. I. 304 Se man ðe plantað treowa oððe wyrta, swa lange he hi wæterað oðþæt hi beoð ciðfæste. c1200Ormin 13864 All swa summ erþe wattredd iss Þurrh reȝȝn & dæw off heffne. a1300Cursor M. 21304 Þe first he tils þe feild to sede, þe toiþer he saus efter þe sede, þe thrid it harus..þe ferth it watters. 1382Wyclif Ecclus. xxiv. 42, I seide, I shal watrin the gardyn of my plauntingus. c1440Promp. Parv. 518/2 Watron', herbys (or other lyke, P.), irrigo, rigo, humecto. 1526Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 108 b, Be tender ouer them as ye wolde be ouer a noble & precyous plant.., attendyng it, watrynge it diligently. 1585–7Acc. Mary Q. Scots (Camden) 17 Richarde Garrett and John Smyth, for mindinge and wateringe the garden, xij s. ij d. 1601Holland Pliny xii. i. I. 358 They came to be so highly esteemed, that for to make them grow the better, men would be at the cost to water them with wine. 1662Gerbier Princ. 33 They are Watered with a Gardeners Watering-Pot. 1667Milton P.L. xi. 279 Who now shall reare ye to the Sun, or ranke Your Tribes, and water from th' ambrosial Fount? 1699L. Meager New Art Garden. 130 To destroy Worms and other Insects,..water your Gravel-Walks with water wherein Tobacco stalks have been boiled. 1707Mortimer Husb. (1721) II. 56 Strew the Seeds pretty thick,..keeping of them well water'd every Evening, except when the Season waters them. 1796C. Marshall Gardening xx. (1813) 404 Water, if dry weather, new planted trees, shrubs, and flowers. 1853Dickens Bleak Ho. xxxvii, After we had finished helping the gardener in watering his flowers. 1885G. Nicholson Illustr. Dict. Gardening I. 217/2 The plants [sc. Brussels sprouts]..should be watered-in when planted. 1917M. Swayne In Mesopotamia xi. 161 The swiftness with which seeds grow when properly watered is uncanny. 1958Listener 21 Aug. 275/2 By taking off well-ripened shoots..and placing three shoots in three-inch pots..watering them in..and keeping them perfectly airtight and shaded, I have got a good percentage to root. 1982Times 22 May 9/4, I always like to water-in my lawn fertilizers.
absol.1855Delamer Kitch. Gard. (1861) 22 If May should be very dry, I am obliged to water. 1857Hughes Tom Brown ii. viii, The ground was at last chosen [for the cricket match], and two men set to work upon it to water and roll.
b. fig. (See also 5 c.)
c1200Ormin 13848 To wattrenn & to dæwwenn swa Þurrh beᵹᵹske & sallte tæress Þatt herrte, þat..Iss..forrclungenn. 1340Ayenb. 131 Þis trau [of mildenesse] is yzet bezide þe welle of godes drede huer-of hit is echedaye y-wetered ine wyntre and ine zomere. 1534More Comf. agst. Trib. iii. xxi. S viij b, God..instructeth oure reason..not onelye to receyue them [the spiritual affections] as engendred and planted in our soule, but also in suche wyse water them with wyse aduertisement of godly counsayle. 1607Shakes. Cor. v. vi. 23, I rais'd him..: who being so heighten'd, He watered his new Plants with dewes of Flattery, Seducing so my Friends. 1672–5T. Comber Comp. Temple (1702) 289 The Apostles..planted this Faith..and watred it with their blood. 1820Shelley Witch of Atlas 27 Wordsworth informs us he was nineteen years Considering and retouching Peter Bell; Watering his laurels with the killing tears Of slow, dull care. 1874Abp. Benson in A. C. Benson Life (1899) I. xi. 373 You have now to water the good seed you have sown with your prayers. 1876Grant One of Six Hundred lii. 437, I resolved to return thankfully..home, to water my laurels among the..grassy glens of my native place.
absol.1382Wyclif I Cor. iii. 6, I plauntide, Apollo watride, or moystide, but God ȝaf encresynge. 1846A. Marsh Father Darcy II. ii. 43 Their blood hath watered and we shall reap.
c. To supply (land, crops) with water by flooding or by means of irrigation-channels; to irrigate.
1555Eden Decades (Arb.) 159 They founde manye fayre gardeyns and pleasaunte fyeldes watered with trenshes distrybuted in marueylous order. 1577B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. i. 45 b, Some, where they may ouerflowe it [grass], doo water it a day before they cut it. 1687A. Lovell tr. Thevenot's Trav. iii. 26 The Corn-land is never watered, because the Dew that falls plentifully in the Mornings, is sufficient for it. 1791Rep. Commrs. Thames-Isis Navig. 26 A Hatch Gate..is drawn much in Short-water Time; to water the Meadows. 1799A. Young Agric. Lincoln 275 He set to work, and built sluices, formed carrier trenches and drains; and thus watered 50 acres. 1801Farmer's Mag. Aug. 268 To the person who shall, in a country where irrigation is not generally in practice, water the greatest number of acres.
†d. slang. To give free entertainment to; to ‘treat’. Obs. rare.
1742P. Yorke Let. 15 Dec., in G. Harris Life Ld. Hardwicke (1847) II. vii. 43 Charles is watring the Quorum of Bennet, ten miles round; or, to speak less quaintly, is treating away at Cambridge.
4. a. Of a river, etc.: To supply water to (vegetation, land). Now chiefly passive.
c1000ælfric Gen. ii. 6 Ac an wyll asprang of þære eorðan wætriende ealre þære eorðan bradnysse. Ibid. ii. 10 And þæt flod eode of stowe þære winsumnisse to wætrienne neorxena wang. 1387Trevisa Higden I. 133 Nilus ouer⁓floweþ and watereþ al þe lond of Egipte. c1440J. Capgrave St. Kath. v. 1905 In stede of blood mylke ran at hir nekke... It ran so plenteuously it wattered al the ground That lay abouten hir. O most merueylous welle! 1555Eden Decades (Arb.) 133 Ryuers..wherwith al suche trees as are planted on the stiepe or foote of the mountaynes..are watered. 1590E. Webbe Trav. (Arb.) 22 All the grounde throughout the lande of Egipt is continually watred by the water which..is turned into the cuntries round about. 1632Lithgow Trav. i. 25 This Prouince is mainely watered through the middle with stately Po. 1735Johnson Lobo's Abyssinia, Descr. x. 102 It [the Nile] then waters the kingdoms of Amhara, Olaca, [etc.]. 1756–7tr. Keysler's Trav. (1760) IV. 345 The road lies through a delightful valley, which is watered by the Isse or Itch. 1784Cowper Task vi. 930 Stillest streams Oft water fairest meadows. 1820Scott Ivanhoe i, In that pleasant district of merry England which is watered by the river Don. 1853Newman Hist. Sk. (1873) II. i. ii. 63 Sogdiana is watered by a number of great rivers. 1901Sladen In Sicily I. ii. xix. 271 That rocky plateau..could.. be converted into an almost impregnable fortress... It is splendidly watered.
fig.1671Milton P.R. iv. 277 Socrates..from whose mouth issu'd forth Mellifluous streams that water'd all the schools Of Academics old and new. 1788Cowper Negro's Compl. 19 Sighs must fan it, tears must water, Sweat of ours must dress the soil.
†b. Of water, a river, etc.: To surround or bound (a city, fort). Chiefly pass. also with about.
c1400Destr. Troy 319 Hit was þe souerayne Citie of the Soyle euer,..Well wallit for werre, watrit aboute. 1572T. Twyne tr. Dionysius' Surv. World E vij, On the one side runneth Corus, an other Choaspes,..rising out of the Riuer Indus, and watering the cittie Susa. 1589P. Ive Fortif. 25 Neither, if the Fort do stand well watered, need the face of the Curtin to be raised..higher then three or foure foote aboue the water. 1601R. Johnson Kingd. & Commw. 36 As for the Continent he [the King of Spain] is absolute lord of all that sea coast which watereth Florida, Noua Hispania, Iucatan, [etc.]. 1631Weever Anc. Funeral Mon. 597, I saw the remaines of a Monasterie, pleasantly watered about with seuerall streames. 1753Hanway Trav. vii. xcviii. (1762) I. 457 It [the city] is watered by the Leina.
5. a. to water (something) with one's tears: to make wet or moist with copious and continued weeping; to shed tears upon or over. Chiefly hyperbolical or fig. Obs. or arch.
a1200Vices & Virtues 147 He [ðe prophete] sade: Ich scal watrien min bedd mid mine teares. 1382Wyclif Ps. vi. 7 With my teres my bedding I shal watrin. 1535Coverdale Luke vii. 38 She..beganne to water his fete with teares. 1634Heywood Maidenh. well lost i. B 2 b, Each step I treade I'le water with a teare. 1667Milton P.L. x. 1090 What better can we do, then..there confess Humbly our faults, and pardon beg, with tears Watering the ground. 1675J. Owen Indwelling Sin viii. (1732) 93 If it teach us to water a free Pardon with Tears,..it is Divine. 1760–72H. Brooke Fool of Qual. (1809) III. 113 [He] plentifully watered the ground with his tears as he passed. Ibid. 119 Often have we watered the good man's memory with our tears. 1779Mirror No. 44. ⁋8 La Roche threw his arms round his neck, and watered it with his tears. 1832Tennyson Œnone 230 Hath he not sworn his love a thousand times..Seal'd it with kisses? water'd it with tears?
†b. Said of the tears. Obs.
1606Shakes. Ant. & Cl. i. ii. 177 And indeed the teares liue in an Onion, that should water this sorrow. 1782F. Burney Cecilia vii. viii, ‘No, hate me not,’ said Mrs. Delvile, kissing from her cheeks the tears that watered them.
†c. Phrases. to water one's eyes, also jocularly to water one's plants: to shed tears, to weep. Obs.
c1400Destr. Troy 8039 Bresaid..With myche weping & waile, waterid hir ene. c1460Towneley Myst. xxii. 331 For sorow I water both myn eeyn. a1562G. Cavendish Wolsey (1893) 129 Whiche words caused my Lord of Wyltshere to water his eyes. 1587Turberv. Trag. Tales 125 b, Which when Symona had beheld, She watred straight her eyes.
1542Udall Erasm. Apoph. 266 When he read the chronicle of Alexander the greate, he could not forbeare to water his plantes [L. non tenuit lachrymas]. 1590Lodge Rosalynde (1592) O 2, Water not thy plants, Phoebe, for I do pity thy plaints, nor seek not to discouer thy loues in teares. 1600Holland Livy xxx. xv. 750 Masanissa, whiles he heard these words..began to water his plants [L. lacrimæ obortæ]. 1724Swift Acc. Wood's Exec. Misc. (1735) V. 314 Bodice-maker. I'll lace his Sides. Gardener. I'll make him water his Plants. 1828Carr Craven Gloss. (ed. 2) s.v. Plants, ‘To water one's plants,’ to shed tears.
†6.
a. To soak in or with water, to steep in a liquor; also, to soften by soaking, macerate. Obs.
1398Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xvii. lxiv. (1495) 641 One sayth that beenes grow the sooner..yf they ben watryd in pysse thre dayes or they be sowen. c1430Two Cookery-bks. 43, Nym Milwel or lenge, þat is wel y-wateryd. c1440Pallad. on Husb. i. 795 With ficchis flour ywattrid wel biforn, Let modle al this seed. 1483Act 1 Ric. III. c. 8. §1 No person..shall sell..any Manner Woollen Cloths, called Broad Cloths, unless the same Cloth be before fully watered. 1542Boorde Dyetary iii. (1870) 236 Also, nygh to the place let nother flaxe nor hempe be watered. 1556Withals Dict. (1562) 47 Macero, to water fisshe or flesshe. 1577B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. i. 10 b, A Hopper..serueth to conuey downe the Malt, after it is watred vnto the hearecloth, where it is dryed. 1611in Trans. Exeter Dioc. Archit. Soc. Ser. ii. (1867) I. 399 Item to a man to water the reed,..i s. 1655Walton Angler i. xxi. (1661) 246 Which is so much of the strength of the Line lost for want of first watering it, and then re-twisting it. 1675H. Woolley Gentlew. Comp. 123 Lay them [collars of brawn] a-soaking in fair water; be sure that they be watered two days before you bind them up.
†b. to water out: to free from salt by soaking in water. Obs.
1683Pettus Fleta Min. v. viii. 338 When the Salt is to be put over the Ashes,..it must be well watered out [orig. G. ausswässern] that the red bottom may not be very salty.
†c. To wash down (solid food) with liquor.
1630J. Taylor (Water P.) Great Eater of Kent Wks. i. 144/2 Indeed he is no drunkard,..for one Pinte of Beere or Ale is enough to wash downe a Hog, or water a Sheepe with him.
d. To sprinkle or drench (a road, pavement, etc.) with water, in order to lay the dust.
1662J. Davies tr. Olearius' Voy. Ambass. 260 Their Inhabitants had water'd the Streets, which being not pav'd,.. the dust had otherwise..annoy'd us. 1835Dickens Sk. Boz, Streets—Morning, The apprentice, who pauses every other minute from his task of sweeping out the shop and watering the pavement in front of it. 1861Mrs. H. Wood East Lynne iii. xxii, Afy, lifting her capacious dress, for the streets had just been watered, minced off. 1872Schele de Vere Americanisms 359 As American railroads are..liable, in sandy regions, to be enveloped in unbearable clouds of dust, track sprinklers are frequently employed to water them. 1885Law Rep. 14 Q.B.D. 891 He was directed by the inspector..to water certain streets.
e. Mil. To pour shell-fire upon. Said also of shell-fire. [So Fr. arroser, G. bewässern.]
1915J. Buchan Nelson's Hist. War III. xxi. 89 Thereupon von Hindenburg attempted to ‘prepare’ a passage by a great bombardment—high angle shell fire which should ‘water’ the enemy's position. Ibid. VII. lii. 106 The Germans were closing in on both sides and ‘watering’ the whole hinterland with their fire.
f. To sprinkle or drench (a material) with water in order to moisten it or with a solution to impregnate it. Also with down.
1474Coventry Leet Bk. 397 Nother that he water nother chaunge no mannes corne to geve hym the wers for the better. 1786in J. Lloyd Old South Wales Iron Works (1906) 35 To take..Water issuing from the said veins of Coal for the purpose of watering their Coaks and Coakyards at Pendarren Furnace. 1815J. Smith Panorama Sci. & Art II. 562 The cloth is exposed for a few days to the open air in the field, and frequently watered, to remove every trace of the acids. 1836Penny Cycl. V. 408/1 [Brick] The clay and ashes thus mixed together are ‘watered down’, by water being thrown over them with a wooden scoop. 1839Ure Dict. Arts 1255 Spreading them [tobacco leaves] in a heap upon a stone pavement, watering each layer in succession, with a solution..called sauce. 1868Rep. U.S. Commissioner Agric. (1869) 441 In hot weather the [milk] can is covered with a textile wrapper which is watered with a fine sprinkler before the train starts.
g. To saturate (the clothing or) the clothing of (a person) with moisture.
1754A. Murphy Gray's Inn Jrnl. No. 71 ⁋3 Producing a Squirt, he began to let fly at me in such a Manner, that I was soon pretty well watered from Head to Foot. 1844Kinglake Eothen xviii, A plenteous sweat burst through my skin, and watered my clothes through and through.
h. To put water into. (See quots.)
1867Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., Water his hole. A saying used when the cable is up and down, to encourage the men to heave heartily, and raise the shank of the anchor so that the water may get down by the shank, and relieve the anchor of the superincumbent mud. 1878E. Schiller's Technol. Dict. s.v., To Water a vessel on the stocks (Ship-b.) Ein Schiff wässern oder vollpumpen. Abreuver un bâtiment.
i. To treat hydropathically. ? nonce-use.
1854Keble in J. T. Coleridge Mem. (1869) 376 He is being watered at Malvern, I hope successfully.
j. Phrase. to water one's clay, to take liquid refreshment. (Cf. phrases in clay n. 4 b.)
1769Goldsm. Ess. v, Old women should water their clay a little now and then; and now to your story.
7. To add water to as a diluent or solvent, thereby increasing the bulk and reducing the strength.
a. To dilute (wine, strong liquor, milk, tea) with water.
1387Trevisa Higden VI. 255 He wolde drynke a litel wyne i-watred [v.r. ywatert]. 1398― Barth. De P.R. xvii. clxxxv. (1495) 725 Redde wyne that is full red as blood is moost stronge and nedyth therefore to be ryghte wel watred. 1605P. Erondelle Fr. Gard. M 1 b, If I make any mixture, I do be-wine y⊇ water, and not water y⊇ wine. 1850H. Melville White Jacket I. xliii. 278 He pronounces his grog basely watered. 1865Visct. Milton & W. B. Cheadle N.-W. Passage by Land v. (1867) 73 We..sent off to him a very small quantity [of rum] well watered. 1865G. Macdonald Alec Forbes viii, They sold milk. And if any customer had accused her of watering it, Mrs. Bruce's best answer would have been [etc.]. 1897B. Stoker Dracula xxi. (1912) 301 It was like tea after the teapot had been watered. 1902J. C. Snaith Wayfarers xvi, Tea twice watered with a good deal of sugar in it.
b. fig.
1871Ruskin Fors Clav. vii. 15 The knowledge made up for sale is apt to be watered and dusted. 1887Lowell Old Eng. Dramatists (1892) 91 But it is not true that the sense is expanded, if by that we are to understand that Chapman watered his thought to make it fill up. 1906Times Lit. Suppl. 2 Nov. 370/2 The book is full of quotations... Indeed much of it is just these writers watered.
c. water down. (a) lit. To reduce the strength of (liquor) by dilution. (b) To weaken the force or strength of (language) by addition or alteration. (c) To reduce in efficacy or potency.
(a) Mod. This whisky is very much watered down.
(b)1850Edin. Rev. July 179 One or two of the recent translations.., while adhering closely to the sense, and, in some degree, to the form of the original, may yet be fairly accused of watering down æschylus. 1856J. W. Warter in Lett. Southey Pref. 8 As to Southey's opinions, my business, in the selection of these letters, was, clearly, not to water them down,..but rather to leave them patent to the world in their undisguised reality. 1889Spectator 9 Nov. 623/2 The Bishop would have done better not to water down his manly protest against the overstrained moralists. 1899J. A. Doyle in Eng. Hist. Rev. July 597 They watered down their political sentiments to the standard which they supposed would suit their hearers.
(c)1879Froude Cæsar iii. 29 Still less had the Roman citizens an inclination to share their privileges with Samnites and Etruscans, and see the value of their votes watered down. 1919W. Crooke in Man XIX. 23 In some cases the ordeal has been so watered down that the risk to life or limb is merely nominal.
†d. U.S. slang. To pack (a jury). Obs.
1792J. Belknap Hist. New-Hampshire III. 256 In the administration of justice, frequent complaints were made of partiality... The practice of watering the jury was familiarly known to those persons who had business in the Law.
e. Comm. To increase in nominal amount (the stock or capital of a trading company) by the creation of fictitious stock. Also with up.
1870Tribune (N.Y.) 17 Dec., in Schele de Vere Americanisms (1872) 359 In two years the capitals of twenty-eight Northern railroads have been watered to the extent of nearly two hundred millions. 1883Pall Mall Gaz. 5 July 5/1 The new capital was raised at heavy premiums, and therefore does not ‘water’ the original shares strictly speaking. 1883Manch. Guard. 15 Oct. 5/5 The decision..gives unlimited encouragement to the entirely vicious practice of ‘watering’ stock. 1899Westm. Gaz. 6 Apr. 3/1 Considering the vast extent to which capital has been ‘watered up’ in transfer to joint-stock companies.
†8. = wash v. 9 c. Also to water over. lit. and fig. Obs. rare.
1637Rutherford Let. to J. Gordon Lett. (1664) 248 Yet all these are but like gold in clink and colour and watered brass and base mettall. 1637― Let. to Lady Kenmure 17 June, Since I must have chains, He would put golden chains on me, watered over with many consolations.
9. a. To produce a moiré or wavy lustrous finish on (silk or other textile fabrics) by sprinkling them with water and passing them through a calender. Cf. watered ppl. a. 5.
c1450Maitl. Club Misc. III. 199 Ane claith of bukram watteryt with letteris of gold. 1603Knolles Hist. Turkes (1621) 1326 Five pieces of silke, five of damaske, five of silke watered. 1684Patent Office No. 241 A new way of Beautifying severall Sorts of Cloath..and thereby Watering, Damasking and Flowering the same. 1708Brit. Apollo No. 80. 2/2 No two pieces were ever water'd alike. 1745R. Pococke Descr. East II. i. viii. 125 These things [silks and cottons] are watered, which very much adds to their beauty. 1791W. Hamilton Berthollet's Dyeing I. i. iii. x. 295 The calender, under which stuffs are passed to water them. 1837Hood Drinking Song ii, We water roads, horses, silks, ribands, bank-paper.
†b. To represent (a material) as watered in painting. Obs. rare—1.
1733School of Miniature 29 When you would water a Stuff of any sort, you must wave it with lighter or darker Colours, according as what you are upon is Light or Shade.
†c. transf. To give a specious appearance to (defective or inferior goods). Also in fig. context.
1646W. Jenkyn Reformation's Remora 18 Rotten stuffs will not be vendible without watering, nor rotten courses without excuses. 1663J. Spencer Prodigies (1665) 68 The pretty Allegories and Allusions of which Discourse (but the watering of weak and worthless stuff) might possibly shew not unhandsomly in an Oration, but are too airy and thin for a Sermon.
10. Lumber-trade. To put (logs) into the water for transport.
1877Lumberman's Gaz. 24 May, There have been 257,000,000 feet of logs watered on the various branches of the Muskegon.
II. Intransitive uses.
11. a. Of the eyes: To fill and run with moisture; to shed water, to flow with tears.
13..Guy Warw. (A) 5023 Her eyȝen watred for gladnesse. 1362Langl. P. Pl. A. vii. 162 Hongur..wrong him so be þe wombe þat boþe his eȝen watreden. c1400Beryn 579 He had such a pose, That both his eyen waterid. c1460Vrbanitatis 57 in Babees Bk., To depe in þy cuppe þou may not synke..Leste þy eyen water þere by. 1508Dunbar Tua Mariit Wemen 439 With that wateris myn ene, and welteris doune teris. 1573L. Lloyd Pilgr. Princes 26 We reade that the eies did water to see him, the eares allured to heare him. 1590Shakes. Mids. N. iii. i. 200 Good master Mustard seede... I promise you, your kindred hath made my eyes water ere now. 1593― 3 Hen. VI i. iv. 82 And if thine eyes can water for his death, I giue thee this to drie thy Cheekes withall. 1697Verdicts conc. Virgil & Homer iv. 12 His Eyes water and shed some drops of Tears. 1796Morse Amer. Geog. II. 72 When a person walks out in that severe weather, the cold makes the eyes water. 1848Dickens Dombey xlix, The smoke of the pipe..got into the Captain's eyes, and made them blink and water. 1893Stevenson Catriona iv, His eye watered and sparkled, and before he sat down I observed him to sway back and forth. No doubt, he had been supping liberally. 1897Allbutt's Syst. Med. II. 102 The eyes water, the sclerotic is injected.
b. Of a person: To secrete and shed tears († with eye or at the eyes). Also, of tears, to gather in the eyes. rare.
14..Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 593/14 Lippo, to watery with ye. 1821Clare Vill. Minstr. II. 91 Her tears stood watering in her eye. 1848Dickens Dombey xxvi, The Major sat gurgling in the throat and watering at the eyes.
12. a. Of the mouth: To secrete abundant saliva in the anticipation of appetizing food or delicacies. Similarly of the teeth (obs. exc. Sc. ?); also rarely of † the ‘chops’, † the lips. (See also mouth n. 2 c, tooth n. 8 g.)
1530Palsgr. 772/2 My tethe waters to se yonder fayre appels. 1555Eden Decades (Arb.) 181 These craftie foxes [sc. cannibals]..beganne to swalowe theyr spettle as their mouthes watered for greedines of theyr pray. 1592Lyly Gallathea v. i, My teeth still watred with hungar. 1611Coryat Crudities 298, I obserued passing faire Citrens, which made my mouth euen water vpon them. a1612Harington Epigr. ii. xiii. (1618) E 3 b, If one names a Iax, your lips doe water. 1628Mad Pranks Robin Goodfellow (Percy Soc.) 29 A great posset was brought forth: at this Robin Goodfellowes teeth did water. 1639J. Clarke Parœm. 39 He sees no green cheese but his mouth waters after it. 1657H. Crowch Welsh Traveller 6 The apples did so lovely looke,..No delaies now could her brook, her shops did so much water. 1768–74Tucker Lt. Nat. (1834) II. 137 The sight of company sitting down before a plentiful meal will presently make the mouth water to be doing the like. 1771Fielding Intrig. Chambermaid i. v. Wks. II. 349 Let. He is this day to give a grand entertainment... Rak. My chops begin to water. 1850C. Brontë Wuthering Heights i, The canine mother..was sneaking wolfishly to the back of my legs,..her white teeth watering for a snatch. 1854Surtees Handley Cr. li. (1901) II. 80 All the delicacies of the season in short, that make one's mouth water to write. 1876Ruskin Hortus Inclusus (1887) 42 My mouth's watering so for that Thwaite Currant jelly, you can't think. 1886Encycl. Brit. XX. 57/2 The dog's mouth waters only at the sight of food, but the gourmand's mouth will also water at the thought of it. 1899G. Greig Logie o' Buchan ii. 29 Here she pointed to the apples, while Jockie's eyes sparkled and his teeth watered.
b. fig.
a1575tr. Pol. Verg. Eng. Hist. (Camden No. 29) 303 There teethe watering at other men's goods. 1603Holland Plutarch's Mor. 503 His teeth..watred after this treasure. 1608Shakes. Per. iv. ii. 108 There was a Spaniards mouth watred, and he went to bed to her verie description. 1670G. H. Hist. Cardinals iii. ii. 256 Whose teeth water'd at the Papacy. 1720De Foe Hist. D. Campbell iv. 68 [She would] bribe him..to write down the Name of a Young Scotch Peer..that her Mouth watered after. 1841S. Warren Ten Thou. i. viii, Huckaback, smiling..and chinking some money in his trowsers pocket. Titmouse heard it, and (as the phrase is) his teeth watered. 1883E. Pennell-Elmhirst Cream Leicestersh. 424 Every mouth watering at the sight of the sweet country.
13. Of a ship, ship's company, etc.: To take on board a store of fresh water.
1557W. Towrson in Hakluyt Voy. (1589) 113 Wee tolde them that we had not watered. 1611W. Adams Let. in Rundall Mem. Japon (Hakl. Soc.) 19 But, for refreshing of our men we waited, watering and taking in of wood. 1666Lond. Gaz. No. 97/3 The Armada is certainly come into Cadiz, some say to water. 1748Anson's Voy. i. v. 45 The French..usually wooded and watered in Bon Port. Ibid. i. ix. 91 A commodious place for ships to wood and water at. 1787J. White Jrnl. Voy. N.S. Wales (1790) 13 We..gained permission to water, and procure such refreshments as the island [Teneriffe] afforded. 1839Marryat Phant. Ship xxi, The Utrecht..watered, and proceeded on her voyage. 1898P. Manson Trop. Dis. xviii. 306 The recurrence of epidemics of dysentery in the crews of ships which have watered at polluted sources.
14. To drink water; to obtain water to drink.
1607Dekker & Webster Westward Hoe ii. i. C, By Hipocrene I sweare, (which was a certain Well where all the Muses watered). 1646Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. i. iv. 13 When some young Thessalians on horsebacke were beheld a farre off, while their horses watered,..they were conceived..to be but one animall. 1839Lady Lytton Cheveley (ed. 2) III. ii. 54 In the back-ground of the picture cattle were watering in a lake. 1890‘R. Boldrewood’ Col. Reformer xix, In the event of a dry season..the cattle habitually watering there would..betake themselves to the ‘frontage’.
15. To undergo hydropathic treatment. (Cf. waterer 5, watering vbl. n. 12.)
1868A. Dawson Rambling Recoll. 42 He annually watered at Pitcaithly to ward off rheumatism.
16. To urinate. rare.
1626B. Jonson Staple of N. iv. i, What shal's doe with our selues, while the women water? and the Fidlers eat? 1717Prior Alma ii. 500 Pleas'd with her Punch, the Gallant Soul First drank, then water'd in the Bowl. 1966M. Catto Bird on Wing i. 15 He went into the lav. The Major could hear him watering.
17. Of a retriever: To take to the water.
1885Bazaar Exch. & M. 30 Mar. 1260/1 Handsome retriever bitch,..will water and retrieve well. |