[Cf. G. wasserwall.]
1. A wall that rises by the side of water; a containing wall beside or around a body of water.
a. 1440. Sir Degrev., 907. Ther ys a place in the wall, Bytwyne the chaumbur and the hal, Thor lyȝthe a mychel watur-wal Of fourty feyt brede.
1445–6. Durham Acc. Rolls (Surtees), 630. Pro reparacione et emendacione de le Waterwall ac rote exterioris molendini de Scaltoke, 15s.
1574. in Reg. Mag. Sig. Scot., 1582, 105/2. Necnon edificando lie walterwall cum aist(l)erstanis dicti molendini.
1660. Melrose Regality Rec. (S.H.S.), I. 262. [John Mein, mason, sues William Edgar for 4 l. Scots] for beating of the watter-wall..
1907. Jean Webster, Jerry Junior, ii. 21. Three of them [girls], with black eyes and blacker hair, were kneeling on the beach thumping and scrubbing a pile of linen…. The grass beyond the water-wall was already white with bleaching sheets.
† 2. Some plant. Obs. rare–1.
Cf. penny-wall, dial. name (Isle of Man) for the wall pennywort (Eng. Dial. Dict.).
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts, 629. They giue hir the Hearbe Penny-wort or Water-wall to drinke in water.
