1. A bag of skin or leather used for holding or carrying water, esp. one used in Eastern countries for transporting and distributing water.
1638. Sir T. Herbert, Trav., II. (ed. 2), 242. Having soak’t their hussinees or water baggs, the wine bottles are then emptied.
1659–60. Knaresb. Wills (Surtees), II. 245. 1 pair of water bags.
1779. Louth Corporation Acc. (1891), 67. Pd. to John Jeffery for him to get a pair of new Water Bags … 10 s. 6 d.
1850. R. G. Cumming, Hunter’s Life S. Afr. (1902), 87/1. This skin … is used by the natives for making water-bags, in which they convey supplies of water from the nearest vley or fountain … to the village.
1895. Anne C. Wilson, 5 Yrs. in India, 262. The water-carrier, with his water-bag of goat-skin slung over his left shoulder.
† 2. Her. In pl. form = WATER-BOUGET 2. Obs.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. 295/2. He beareth Or, a Water Bowget, Sable. This is the form of the Bowget in ancient times, and was called a Water Budget, or Water Baggs.
3. (See quot. 1859.)
1836. Penny Cycl., VI. 189/1. The … free communication which subsists between the water-bag and rumen in the camel tribe.
1859. T. S. Cobbold, Ruminantia, in Todd’s Cycl. Anat., V. 536/2. The second stomachal viscus … otherwise called the reticulum, bonnet, or water-bag … is of much smaller dimensions than the paunch, and forms a sort of cul-de-sac between it and the third cavity.
4. ‘An india-rubber bag for holding hot water for local application’ (Syd. Soc. Lex., 1899).
1895. in Funk’s Stand. Dict.
