[MARK sb.1 Cf. G. wassermarke in various senses.]
† 1. Sc. A boundary mark indicating the line of separation between the waters of different rivers (belonging to different proprietors). Obs.
1632. Reg. Mag. Sig. Scot., 652/2. Cum signis fluvialibus lie water markis intra aquas de Done et Loquhell. Ibid. (1637), 266/2. Cum molendino, maneriei loco, signis fluvialibus lie water-merkis inter aquas de Done et Loquhell.
2. The line (whether actually marked or not) forming the limit to which the tide, or the water of a river, well, flood, etc., has risen or usually rises, Cf. HIGH-WATER MARK, LOW-WATER MARK.
1678. Dryden, All for Love, I. i. Men and Beasts Were born above the tops of Trees, that grew On th’ utmost Margin of the Water-mark.
1751. Act 24 Geo. II., c. 8, § 16. Till the Water is sunk below the Watermark.
c. 1820. S. Rogers, Italy, Gondola, 79. Those hundred Isles … That rise abruptly from the water-mark.
1889. Hardwicke’s Sci.-Gossip, XXV. 125. Plunging through the sand we hope to find something on the water-mark.
fig. 1896. E. Augusta King, Ital. Highways, 62. The ignorance of the average man shall not always be taken as the water-mark above which it is undesirable that any woman’s knowledge shall rise.
3. A mark left by a flood.
1822. J. Flint, Lett. fr. Amer., 123. A watermark on the beach showed that the Ohio had lately risen to the height of fourteen or fifteen feet.
1883. G. C. Davies, Norfolk Broads, ii. 14. Bright green reeds eight feet high, with a yellow watermark on their lower stems.
4. The line showing the draught of a ship.
1764. [J. Burton], Pres. St. Navig. Thames, 36. The Gauger should first affix on the Side the Water-mark of 3 Feet Draught.
1858. Simmonds, Dict. Trade, Water-mark,… the float-line or sinking depth of a ship.
1883. W. C. Russell, Sailors’ Lang., Water-marks, the figures on a ship’s stern showing the depth of water she draws.
5. A distinguishing mark or device impressed in the substance of a sheet of paper during manufacture, usually barely noticeable except when the sheet is held against strong light.
So G. wassermarke (1785); the more common word is now wasserzeichen (zeichen sign). The name was prob. given because the water-mark, being less opaque than the rest of the paper, had the appearance of having been produced by the action of water.
1708. Hearne, Collect., 11 March (O. H. S.), II. 98. Has sent specimens of old paper (for water-marks &c.).
1779. Gentl. Mag., XLIX. 374/1. He [Mathison] had discovered a method of counterfeiting the water-mark of the bank paper.
1787. J. Fenn, Orig. Lett., I. Pref. p. xxi. note. The paper-marks are those figures formed by wires, on the sieve at the bottom of the mould in which the paper is made, and are impressed on it in its pulpy state…. They are often called the water-marks.
1870. E. Peacock, Ralf Skirl., II. 237. It showed a water-mark of a lion standing upright.
1913. F. W. Cornish, Jane Austen, x. 226. As the water-marks in the original manuscript are 1803 and 1804 it could not have been written before that time.
b. The metal design from which the impression is made.
1854. C. Tomlinson, Obj. Art-Manuf., Paper, 22. The singular names of the older kinds of paper appear to have some connection with the devices formed in them by the water-marks. Water-marks are ornamental figures in wire or thin brass, sewn upon the wires of the mould, and like those wires, they leave an impression, by rendering the paper where it lies on them, thinner and more translucent.
