Also watt. [Siamese, said to be a. Skr. vāṭa enclosure, grove.] A Siamese Buddhist temple.
1871. Alabaster, Wheel of Law, 264. We stop for the night at a Wat, or Buddhist monastery.
1886. Encycl. Brit., XXI. 853/2. (Siam) The temples (wats) hold very little landed or house property.
1886. Pall Mall Gaz., 3 Aug., 4/1. Almost every ‘wat,’ or temple, in that country [Siam] has in the grounds attached to it a large flat slab of whitewashed masonry.
1897. Outing, March, 586/1. The occasional spire of a ‘Watt’ or temple, showing that this canal is one of the streets of the city [the capital of Siam].
