a1393 J. Gower Confessio Amantis (Fairf.) vii. l. 1193 (MED) This Signe [sc. Aquarius] is verraily resembled Lich to a man which halt assembled In eyther hand a water spoute, Wherof the stremes rennen oute.

1566 T. Drant Wailyngs Hieremiah in tr. Horace Medicinable Morall sig. K.ij^v Therefore wepe I, and from myne eye, as from a water spoute, A flowyng streame, of gushyng teares, eftsoones doothe issue out.

1585 J. Higgins tr. Junius Nomenclator 393/2 Sipho, a waterspowt, or a water squirt.

1611 J. Speed Hist. Great Brit. ix. xiii. 592/2 The Maior to attend in his owne person as chiefe Cuppe-waiter..to serue the king in a cuppe of gold with spices, and for his Fees to haue the said cuppe, and a Water-spowt-potte of gold thereunto belonging.

1615 H. Crooke Μικροκοσμογραϕια x. xix. 765 The Ewre-Muscles..are scituated outward and backeward aboue the gristle where it resembleth the figure of an Ewre or Water-spout.

1638 Cal. Anc. Rec. Dublin (1892) III. 342 An instrument called a water spoute, which is verie necessarie for quenchinge of any greate fire sodainlie.

1730 A. Gordon tr. F. S. Maffei Compl. Hist. Anc. Amphitheatres 230 Next follows the Cornish,..with a Water-spout.

1751 A. McDouall Inst. Laws Scotl. I. 682 One cannot, by his fact or deed, throw the water from his own upon his neighbour's grounds, by water-spouts or otherwise.

1847 C. Dickens Dombey & Son (1848) xlii. 424 Mr. Carker..looked down at Mr. Dombey..like a leering face on an old water-spout.

1935 Times Lit. Suppl. 15 Aug. 508/4 Another important class of Balinese antiquities is richly carved water-spouts.

1981 R. Westall Scarecrows viii. 68 Tiny gurgle of water from the water-spouts like faceless gargoyles, high up in the walls.

2002 G. M. Eberhart Mysterious Creatures I. 309/2 The Makara sculptures that serve as waterspouts on the ninth-century Buddhist temple of Borobudur are elephantine.

1607 R. Niccols Cuckow 24 When Boreas winged scouts Locks vp the fruitfull Terras water spouts.

a1661 W. Brereton Trav. (1844) 56 We were then brought down to the water-work, where was a ball tossed and danced two yards high by the strength and force of the water-spout.

1700 P. Danet Compl. Dict. Greek & Rom. Antiq. sig. M2/1 There is another Water which is not very clear..: one of this sort is to be seen, chiefly near to Athens, where it is convey'd to make Water-Spouts.

1712 J. James tr. A.-J. Dézallier d'Argenville Theory & Pract. Gardening 4 I instruct him to make Basons, and Fountains with Water-spouts, to convey Water into his Gardens.

1804 Naval Chron. 11 43 There are several water-spouts of inferior note near the spring of Geyser.

1897 Guide to Wanganui 88 In another fissure close by is a small waterspout, which appears to have some connection with the whistler [sc. a geyser].

1946 Pop. Sci. Monthly Apr. 82 When the surrounding water rushes in to fill the hole left by the first geyser, it will meet in the center and a second giant waterspout will rise.

1999 G. Kissick Winter in Volcano x. 93 The waves churn against a broad lava shelf and a whistling waterspout shoots intermittently from the blowhole.

1586 T. Bankes Verie Godly Serm. xlii. f. 98 By the noyse..as..thy Waterspoutes [Note thy Cloudes sende downe the rayne.]

1768 tr. S. Gessner Daphnis ii. 88 Suddenly there burst a water spout, and a violent flood carried away my cottage, my trees, and my garden.

1778 P. Thicknesse Year's Journey France & Spain I. 351 The water-spouts which fell into the middle of those narrow streets almost deluged us.

1815 W. Scott Guy Mannering II. 26 Some torrent or water-spout from the neighbouring hills overflowed the marshy ground below.

1843 G. Borrow Bible in Spain II. viii. 171 The demons of the clouds..assailed them with water-spouts as they toiled up the steep winding paths of Fuencebadon.

1852 J. Bright Let. 15 July in G. M. Trevelyan Life J. Bright (1913) 201 ‘After Lord Derby, the deluge,’ says Lord Maidstone... The ‘deluge’ means Manchester, it is said—a sort of political waterspout which is to sweep away all that Peer and Parson hold dear.

1889 F. E. Gretton Memory's Harkback 15 A waterspout burst on the hill overhanging the village of Mordiford.

1896 C. K. Paul tr. J.-K. Huysmans En Route ii. i. 149 It would be like a waterspout of clerical stupidity beating down on a country.

1986 P. Scupham Out Late 28 How could these couples ever doubt In snowfall, hail or waterspout That Spring would come again?

1625 S. Purchas Pilgrimes I. i. vi. 20 Tempests, Huricanos, Tufons, Water-spouts and dreadfull Meteors from the Aire.

1738 T. Shaw Trav. Barbary & Levant 362 Water Spouts are more frequent near the Capes of Latikea, Greego, and Carmel than in any other Part of the Mediterranean Sea.

1787 tr. C.-F. Volney Trav. Syria & Egypt I. xxi. 340 And hence will result those columns of water known by the name of Typhons and water-spouts.

1818 J. Keats Endymion iii. 122 When a dread waterspout had rear'd aloft Its hungry hugeness.

1829 J. Rennie in Mag. Nat. Hist. 1 458 Water-spouts make their appearance from the bosom of a heavy cloud,..gradually descending in a point like an inverted cone, sometimes perpendicularly, and sometimes bending, or waved.

1871 C. H. Spurgeon Treasury of David II. xlii. 303 As in a waterspout, the deeps above and below clasp hands, so it seemed to David that heaven and earth united to create a tempest around him.

1900 G. Tyrrell Oil & Wine (1907) 99 After many vain reachings towards one another, sea and sky at last unite in the waterspout.

1943 National Geographic Mag. Dec. 649 (caption) Waterspouts usually last only a few minutes.

2009 N.Y. Times (National ed.) 2 Sept. a20/2 On Sunday night, a waterspout moved onshore at Galveston Island.