Obs. exc. dial. Forms: 5–6 watte, 6–7 watt, 5–7, 9 dial. wat. [Prob. a use of Wat, short for Walter († Water).] A hare.
a. 1500. Mourn. Hare, 26, in E. E. Misc. (Warton Club), 44. Lo! he sayth, where syttyt an haare! Aryse upe, Watte, and go forthe blyve! Ibid., 60. As doth the sylly Wat.
c. 1500. in Babees Bk. (1868), 404. I wold my master were a watt & my boke a wyld Catt, & a brase of grehowndis in his toppe.
c. 1532. Du Wes, Introd. Fr., in Palsgr., 913. The watte, le leurart.
1556. J. Heywood, Spider & Fly, xxiv. 25. Neuer was there yet, any larke or wat, Before hawke or dog, flatter darde or squat.
1592. Shaks., Ven. & Ad., 697. Poore wat farre off vpon a hill, Stands on his hinder-legs with listning eare.
1622. Drayton, Poly-olb., xxiii. 331. The man whose vacant mind prepares him to the sport, The Finder sendeth out, to seek the nimble Wat.
1692. R. L’Estrange, Fables, ccclxxxvii. 360. Had he not better have born Wat’s Nibling of his Plants and Roots now, then the Huntsman’s … Laying of his Garden Wast.
