Water sb.

Forms: 1–3 wæter, 2–5 weter, 3 Orm. waterr, (pl. wattress), 3–5 watre, 4 Sc. valtir, vatter, vatyr, (pl. wateren), 4–5 watere, wattre, watur, -yr, 4–6 watir, 4, 6 Sc. vattir, 4–7 chiefly Sc. watter, -ir, 4–7 Sc. walter, 5 vatur, wature, -yre, wadyr, Sc. wattyr, 5–6 Sc. waltir, vater, 6 watier, Sc. wattar, valter, 8–9 Anglo-Ir. wather, 9 dial. waater, waiter, wetter, 2– water. [Com. Teut.: OE. wæter neut. corresponds to OFris. watar, watir, weter, etc., OS. watar (MLG., LG., Du. water), OHG. waʓʓar, waʓar (MHG. waʓʓer, mod.G. wasser):—OTeut. *watar-; a parallel formation with n instead of r occurs in Goth. watō neut. (genit. watins), ON. vatn neut. (Norw. vatn, Sw. vatten, Da. vand). The Indogermanic root *wod- (Teut. *wat-) occurs in OSl., Russ. voda water; the ablaut-variant *wēd- (Teut. *wǣt-) is represented in WET a.; the ablaut-variant *ud- (Teut. *ut-) is found more widely: cf. Skr. udán, Gr. ὔδωρ (genit. ὔδατος:—*udntos), Lith. undŭ (also vanaŭ), Prussian unds, undo, Umbrian utur, water, L. unda wave; also the derivatives with the sense ‘water-animal’ (see OTTER).]

  I.  The liquid of which seas, lakes and rivers are composed, and which falls as rain and issues from springs. When pure, it is transparent, colorless (except as seen in large quantity, when it has a blue tint), tasteless and inodorous.

  Popular language recognizes kinds of ‘water’ that have not all these negative properties; but (even apart from any scientific knowledge) it has usually been more or less clearly understood that these are really mixtures of water with other substances.

  1.  gen.

c. 897.  K. Ælfred, Gregory’s Past. C., 309. Onsend Ladzarus, ðætte he ʓewæte his ytemestan finger on wættre.

c. 1050.  Suppl. Ælfric’s Gloss., 177/30, 31. Aqua, wæter. Limpha, hluttor wæter.

c. 1200.  Ormin, 14038. Crist badd tatt teȝȝ sholldenn gan & fillenn þeȝȝre fetless Wiþþ waterr.

1551.  T. Wilson, Logic, F ij. Water is made whot, here we see that it chaunceth to water (contrary to her nature) to be warme, and therefore it is called chaunceable.

1625.  N. Carpenter, Geogr. Del., I. I. (1635), 9. Water being no other than a thin and fluid body;—must needs require a hard and solid body, whereon to support it selfe.

1752.  Hume, Polit. Disc., v. (ed. 2), 83. All water, wherever it communicates, remains always at a level.

1756.  Burke, Subl. & B., IV. xxi. Water, when simple, is insipid, inodorous, colourless, and smooth.

1798.  Coleridge, Anc. Mar., II. 121. Water, water, every where, Nor any drop to drink.

1813.  Sir H. Davy, Agric. Chem. (1814), i. 16. Water is raised from the ocean diffused through the air and poured down upon the soil.

1815.  J. Smith, Panorama Sci. & Art, II. 145. Water will pass through the pores of gold rather than suffer compression, and appears to be nearly inelastic.

1850.  Tennyson, In Mem., lviii. As drop by drop the water falls in vaults and catacombs.

  b.  With various qualifying words, denoting kinds of water distinguished by their properties or origin: see ICE-WATER, RAIN-WATER, RIVER-WATER, SALT WATER, SEA-WATER, SNOW-WATER, SPRING-WATER, SWEET WATER; COLD WATER, HOT WATER, WARM WATER; also FRESH a. 5, HARD a. 14 a, SOFT a. 25 a.

  c.  Considered as antagonistic to fire.

1390.  Gower, Conf., I. 266. For as the water of a welle Of fyr abateth the malice, Riht so [etc.].

1546.  J. Heywood, Prov. (1867), 10. Foule water as soone as fayre, will quenche hot fyre.

1593.  Shaks., Rich. II., III. iii. 56. Me thinkes King Richard and my selfe should meet With no lesse terror then the Elements Of Fire and Water, when their thundring smoake At meeting teares the cloudie Cheekes of Heauen.

1879.  Encycl. Brit., IX. 235/2. In coping with fires, water is the great agent employed.

  fig.  1682.  Bunyan, Greatn. Soul (1691), 3. This kind of Language tends to cast Water upon weak and beginning Desires.

  d.  As supplied for domestic needs, esp. as conveyed by a channel or conduit from the source, and distributed through pipes to the houses of a district. Phrases, to cut off, turn on the water.

1535.  Coverdale, 2 Kings xx. 20. The pole and water condyte, wherby he conueyed water in to the cite.

1596.  Harington, Metam. Ajax, H 2 b. At Shaftsburie, where water is deerest of anis towne I know.

1653.  J. Nicoll, Diary (Bannatyne Club), 105. Lytill watter could be fund, bot the pepill of Edinburgh wer forcit to bring thair watter from far.

1835.  Dickens, Sk. Boz, Parish, i. The turn-cock having turned on the water. Ibid. (1836), Shops & Tenants. At last the company’s man came to cut off the water.

  e.  As used for motive power.

1698.  Floyer, Asthma (1717), To Rdr. p. xxv. Like a Mill which stands still for want of Water.

  f.  In various similative and figurative phrases, many of which are of biblical origin: see, e.g., Gen. xlix. 4, Jos. vii. 5, 2 Sam. xiv. 14, Ps. lxxix. 3. To write on or in water [= L. in aqua scribere, Gr. γράφειν εἰς ὔδωρ]: to fail to leave abiding record of (something). (To spend money) like water: profusely, recklessly. † To put water in (a person’s) worts: to make things unpleasant for him. † Water in one’s shoes: something disagreeable. † To hold out water, to bear water: = ‘to hold water’ (fig.): see HOLD v. 32. † Where the water sticks (after L. hæret aqua]: where discussion comes to a standstill.

971.  Blickl. Hom., 237. Maneʓa tintreʓa hie þe onbringað … swa þætte þin blod flewþ ofer eorðan swa swa wæter.

c. 1385.  Chaucer, L. G. W., 852. The blood out of the wounde as brode sterte As water, whan the conduit broken is.

1544.  Ascham, Toxoph., I. (Arb.), 28. I found my good bowe … as weake as water.

1546.  J. Heywood, Prov., I. xi. (1867), 32. It is, to geue him, as muche almes or neede As cast water in tems.

1579.  Gosson, Apol. Sch. Abuse (Arb.), 64. They haue … threatned highly, too put water in my woortes, whensoeuer they catche me.

1604.  Shaks., Oth., V. ii. 134. She was false as water.

1608.  Dekker, Lanth. & Candle Lt., viii. G 5. Yet they have a tricke (like water cut with a swoord) to come together instantly and easily againe.

1611.  Beaum. & Fl., Philaster, V. iii. All your better deeds Shall be in water writ, but this in Marble.

1612.  Pasquil’s Night-Cap (1877), 38. No, this deuice too much in vse is growne, And will not hold out water to the last.

1613.  Shaks., Hen. VIII., IV. ii. 46. Mens euill manners liue in Brasse, their Vertues We write in Water.

1655.  Bramhall, Def. True Liberty, 20. This is the very question where the water sticks between us [sc. between Hobbes and Bramhall].

1697.  Tryon, Way to Health, vi. 93. Though it be a vulgar Proverb—As weak as Water.

1704.  N. N., trans. Boccalini’s Advts. fr. Parnass., I. 59. But I must beg leave to tell you, this Excuse will not bear Water.

1728.  W. Smith, Univ. College, 185. And upon that Fear and Conviction that his Cause could not bear Water.

a. 1734.  R. North, Life Ld. Kpr. Guilford (1742), 151. They caressed his Lordship very much as a new Comer,… and talked about a Time to dine with him; all which (as they say) was Water in his Shoes.

1824.  Compl. Hist. Murder Mr. Weare, 231. The organ of destructiveness was not at all prominent or developed. This was ‘water in the shoes’ of the phrenologists.

1831.  S. Warren, Diary Late Physic., xxii. (1832), II. 247. He [a cabin-boy] was frequently flogged … till the blood ran down his back like water.

1859.  Dickens, etc., Haunted Ho., v. 24/1. The sweat poured off my face like water.

1865.  Kingsley, Herew., xx. (end). And the hearts of all the French were turned to water; and the land had peace from its tyrants for many days. Ibid. (1871), Lett., etc. (1877), II. 368. All else is a ‘paralogism’ and runs off them like water off a duck’s back.

1898.  S. J. Weyman, Shrewsbury, xiii. 116. Though at one time my heart was water when I thought of betraying him, at another it glowed with rage and loathing.

  2.  As a drink, as satisfying thirst, or as necessary aliment for animals and plants. Also fig. (chiefly in biblical uses) applied to what satisfies spiritual needs or desires; cf. WATER OF LIFE.

  Bread and water (also in Shaks. † bran and water), the type of extreme hard fare, as of a prisoner or a penitent.

c. 950.  Lindisf. Gosp., John iv. 13. Eʓhuelc seðe ʓedrincað of ðæm uætre þæt ic sello him ne ðyrsteð in æcnisse.

a. 1000.  Colloq. Ælfric, in Wr.-Wülcker, 102. Hwæt drincst þu? Eala, ʓif ic hæbbe, oþþe wæter ʓif ic næbbe ealu.

a. 1200.  Vices & Virtues, 43. Leuere him [sc. Daniel] was … ðat water to drinken ðanne … ðe gode wines.

c. 1200.  Ormin, 3212. Hiss drinnch wass waterr aȝȝ occ aȝȝ, Hiss mete wilde rotess.

c. 1250.  Gen. & Ex., 1246. Ðor ȝhe gan fremen ysmael Wið watres drinc and bredes mel.

1573–80.  Tusser, Husb. (1878), 81. Howse calfe, and go sockle it twise in a day, and after a while, set it water and hay.

1580.  Memorial W. Lambe, C iij b. Whose daily custome it was to meditate vpon a Praier booke, called The Conduit of Comfort,… that with the water thereof his soule … might be refreshed.

1588.  Shaks., L. L. L., I. i. 303. You shall fast a Weeke with Branne and water. Ibid. (1603), Meas. for M., IV. iii. 159. I am faine to dine and sup with water and bran.

1611.  Bible, Isa. xli. 17. When the poore and needie seeke water and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst, I the Lord will heare them.

1656.  R. Short, Drinking Water, 68. Why then should we (like so many Don Quixotes) change our national drink for water?

1731.  Miller, Gard. Dict., s.v. Guidonia, During the Winter-season they should have but little Water.

1749.  Smollett, Gil Blas, I. xii. To regale myself still with my bread and water, and the sight of a silent turnkey.

1759.  R. Brown, Compl. Farmer, 13. Give the horse a ball in his water.

1842.  Loudon, Suburb. Horticult., 386. When plants are ripening their fruit, a diminished supply of water increases the flavour.

1844.  H. Stephens, Bk. Farm, III. 833. One essential requisite in all pasture-fields is an abundant supply of water for stock to drink.

1865.  Mrs. Whitney, Gayworthys, xxxvi. She fell back, trembling, against her chair. Mr. Brinley brought her hastily some water.

1921.  E. L. Masters, Mitch Miller, xiv. 112–3. After that they made him pray, and put him in a dark room and kept him on bread and water for a day.

  b.  Contrasted with wine, as inferior in strength or pleasantness.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 21295. Þe stile o matheu, water it was, And win þe letter o lucas.

1842.  Tennyson, Locksley Hall, 152. Woman is the lesser man, and all thy passions, match’d with mine, Are as moonlight unto sunlight, and as water unto wine.

  c.  Water bewitched (colloq.): used derisively for excessively diluted liquor; now chiefly, very weak tea.

1678.  Ray, Prov. (ed. 2), 84. Water betwitch’t, i. e. very thin beer.

1694.  [see BEWITCHED].

1699.  T. Brown, L’Estrange’s Colloq. of Erasm., Add. v. 53. The Broth was nothing in the world but Water bewitched [L. mera aqua], if it deserved so good a Name.

1731–8.  Swift, Pol. Conversat., i. 24. Your Ladyship is very sparing of your Tea: I protest, the last I took, was no more than Water bewitch’d.

a. 1825.  Forby, Voc. E. Anglia, Water-bewitched, weak tea, coffee, punch, &c.

  fig.  1845.  Carlyle, Cromwell, Introd. ii. I. 25. Another Book of Noble’s … is of much more stupid character; nearly meaningless indeed; mere water bewitched.

  3.  As used for dilution of liquors.

1382.  Wyclif, Isa. i. 22. Thi syluer is turned in to dros; thi wyn is mengd with water.

1731–8.  Swift, Pol. Conversat., ii. 165. Lady Smart. I was told, ours [sc. ale] was very strong. Sir John. Ay, Madam, strong of the Water.

1837.  Dickens, Pickw., xxxviii. Mr. Benjamin Allen … produced … a black bottle half full of brandy. ‘You don’t take water, of course?’ said Bob Sawyer.

  fig.  1860.  Ld. Acron in Gasquet, Acton & Circle (1906), 149. I am afraid you will think I have poured a good deal of water into your wine in ‘Tyrol’ and ‘Syria.’

  b.  In phrasal combinations denoting liquors diluted with water, as brandy-and-water, gin-and-water, rum-and-water, whisky-and-water, wine-and-water: see the first words; also MILK-AND-WATER. Hence jocularly in nonce-combinations.

1882.  Mrs. Oliphant, Lit. Hist. Eng., I. 168. The weak Addison-and-water of the ‘Mirror’ and the ‘Lounger.’

1899.  Daily News, 13 March, 7/1. He once heard a University sermon described as of the Bible and water order.

  c.  fig. (Stock Exchange.) Fictitious capital created by the ‘watering’ or ‘diluting’ of the stock of a trading company. See WATER v. 7 c.

1883.  Nation (N. Y.), 8 Nov., 384/2. The Committee does not produce any evidence to show that it is the dread of ‘water’ which is now keeping the foreign investor out of Wall Street.

1894.  Daily News, 12 July, 5/5. The stock of the Company has been watered three times over, and the Company has not only been able to pay the regular dividends on the water and all, but [etc.].

  4.  As used for washing, steeping, boiling, etc.

c. 1000.  Ags. Gosp., Matt. xxvii. 24. Ða ʓeseah pilatus þæt hyt naht ne fremode … þa ʓenam he wæter & þwoh hys handa.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 20212. Scho … wessh hir suet bodi in water.

c. 1375.  Sc. Leg. Saints, xviii. (Egipciane), 1424. & with his teris wysche þam sone as quha with vattir suld þam don.

c. 1400.  Rule St. Benet (prose), liii. 35. Þabbesse sal giue þe gestis water til þaire hende.

c. 1430.  Two Cookery-bks., 13. Take Vele, Kyde, or Henne, an boyle hem in fayre Water, or ellys in freysshe brothe.

1577.  B. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb., I. 35 b. Lupines … being sodden and layd in water … feedeth Oxen in Winter very well.

1605.  Shaks., Macb., II. ii. 46. Goe get some Water, And wash this filthie Witnesse from your Hand.

1706.  E. Ward, Wooden World Diss. (1708), 15. So incredibly extravagant is be sometimes, as to wash his Cabin with fresh Water, when the Ship’s Company want it to allay the burning Heat of their salt Victuals.

1828.  Scott, F. M. Perth, Chron. Canongate, Ser. II. Introd. These are the stains;… neither water nor any thing else will ever remove them from that spot.

  b.  Each of the quantities of water used successively in a gradual process of washing.

a. 1225.  Ancr. R., 324. Wule a weob beon, et one cherre, mid one watere wel ibleched…?

1684.  J. S., Profit & Pleas. United, 149. Feeding him [your hawk] upon the flesh of Rooks, washed in two waters.

a. 1777.  in Jrnl. Friends’ Hist. Soc. (1914), Oct., 187. Take half a pound of sagoe, and wash it well in 3 or 4 hot waters.

1856.  Kane, Arctic Expl., II. ix. 94. Butter … my own invention, melted from salt beef and washed in many waters.

1875.  F. J. Bird, Dyer’s Hand-bk., 33. Wash in two waters and dry.

  c.  in references to baptism.

c. 1000.  Ags. Gosp., Matt. iii. 11. Ic cow fulliʓe on wætere to dædbote.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 19976. Qua mai for-bede Water at baptim.

1387.  [see COLD WATER b.].

1567.  Gude & Godlie B. (S.T.S.), 14. Quhen Goddis word with watter Junit be, Throw Faith, to gif vs lyfe Eternallie.

1597.  Hooker, Eccl. Pol., V. lx. § 1. Why are we taught that with water God doth purifie and clense his Church.

  5.  Water of a mineral spring or a collection of mineral springs used medicinally for bathing or for drinking, or both. Often plural (cf. L. aquæ) preceded by the or the name of a place. To go to the waters (? obs.): to visit a ‘watering-place’ for remedial treatment.

1542–3.  Act 34 & 35 Hen. VIII., c. 8. Divers honest persones … whome God hathe endued with the knowledge of the nature kinde and operacion of certeyne herbes rotes and waters.

1561.  Gresham, in Burgon, Life (1839), I. 122. Sir John a Leye ys not yett come from the water of Spawe.

1563.  Fulke, Meteors, IV. (1571), 57 b. Of whote bathes. Some waters that are generated and flowe out of vaynes of brymstone, are sensybly warme, and some very whott…. These waters being also drying by nature, are wholsome for many infyrmities.

1641.  in Verney Mem. (1907), I. 207. Waters have twice donn her good and Spaw water is better than the best waters in England.

1652.  J. French, York-sh. Spaw, 85. I approve not of taking the waters too fast.

1676.  Lady Chaworth, in 12th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm., App. V. 29. Lady Portsmouth continues sicke, and some say she will try the French ayre, others the Bath watters.

1712.  Steele, Spect., No. 284, ¶ 4. Though I have drunk the Waters, and am told I ought not to use my Eyes so much, I cannot forbear writing to you.

1720.  Wilcocks, in Ellis, Orig. Lett., Ser. II. IV. 321. Since the kings return from the waters, which agreed very well with him, we have had [etc.].

1775.  Sheridan, St. Patrick’s Day, I. i. She was such a hand at making foreign waters! for Seltzer, Pyrmont, Islington, or Chalybeate, she never had her equal.

1788.  T. Jefferson, Writ. (1859), II. 453. He has obtained leave to go to the waters.

1837.  Dickens, Pickw., xxxv. Most welcome to Ba-ath, sir. It is long—very long, Mr. Pickwick, since you drank the waters.

1854.  Surtees, Handley Cr., iii. (1901), I. 19. It was well known their waters were immeasurably inferior to what they enjoyed, not only in sulphuretted hydrogen, but also in iodine and potash.

1879.  St. George’s Hosp. Rep., IX. 579. She was ordered simply a wine-glass of Orezza water after breakfast every morning.

  6.  Water regarded as collected in seas, lakes, ponds, etc., or as flowing in rivers or streams.

  Often with definite article, as denoting a particular portion of water referred to. Also, the aqueous part of the earth’s surface as a region inhabited by its own characteristic forms of life, in contradistinction to the land and the air.

  For piece, sheet of water, see PIECE sb. 3, SHEET sb.¹ 8 a.

a. 1100.  Gerefa, in Anglia, IX. 259. Ʒe on wuda, ʓe on wætere, ʓe on felda, ʓe on falde.

c. 1175.  Lamb. Hom., 79. Þe uisces iþe wetere and fuȝeles iþe lufte.

c. 1250.  Gen. & Ex., 2968. And aaron held up his hond, to ðe water and ðe more lond.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 399. Þe fiss to watur, als we find, þe fuxol be-taght he to þe wynd.

1377.  Langl., P. Pl., B. XVI. 189. Alle þat lyf hath a londe & a watre.

1473.  Rental Bk. Cupar-Angus (1879), I. 178. Tha sal gif al possibil cure and laubour til hald furth the watter with makyn of perys … and plantation of willeis.

1508.  Dunbar, Thistle & Rose, 66. Dame Nature gaif ane inhibitioun thair To ferss Neptunus, and Eolus the bawld, Nocht to perturb the wattir nor the air.

1573–80.  Tusser, Husb. (1878), 117. Wash sheepe (for the better) where water doth run.

1605.  Shaks., Macb., I. iii. 79. The Earth hath bubbles, as the Water ha’s.

1781.  Cowper, Task, III. 382. But wisdom is a pearl with most success Sought in still water.

1830.  Tennyson, Arab. Nts., 30. Deep inlay Of braided blooms unmown, which crept Adown to where the water slept.

1849.  Macaulay, Hist. Eng., ix. II. 481. The water in the bay was as even as glass.

1867.  Ansted, Phys. Geog., 125. Owing to the position of the land, we have the water divided into two unequal parts, the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic canal.

  b.  The plural is often used instead of the sing. esp. with reference to flowing water or to water moving in waves.

  For the pl. cf. F. eaux, L. aquæ, Gr. ὔδατα.

c. 1000.  Ags. Gosp., Matt. xiv. 28. Dryhten, ʓyf þu hyt eart, hat me cuman to þe ofer þas wæteru.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 380. Þe watters al he cald þe see.

13[?].  E. E. Allit. P., B. 437. Þen he wakened a wynde on watterez to blowe.

c. 1374.  Chaucer, Boeth., V. met. i. (1868), 152. Sone aftre þe same ryueres tigris and eufrates vnioygnen and departen hire watres.

1535.  Coverdale, Ps. lxxvii. 19. Thy waye was in the see, and thy pathes in the great waters.

1610.  Shaks., Temp., I. ii. 1. If by your Art (my dearest father) you haue Put the wild waters in this Rore, allay them.

1684.  J. Peter, Relat. Siege Vienna, 55. About this time the Waters of the Danube swelled so high as to break down the Bridge which the Enemy had made.

1697.  Dryden, Æneis, IX. 152. Old Tyber roar’d; and raising up his Head, Call’d back his Waters to their Oozy Bed.

a. 1774.  Goldsm., Hist. Greece, II. 174. A river not so remarkable for the breadth of its channel, as for the beauty of its waters.

1798.  Coleridge, Anc. Mar., V. 324. Like waters shot from some high crag, The lightning fell with never a jag, A river steep and wide.

1803–6.  Wordsw., Ode, Intim. Immort., 171. And see the Children sport upon the shore, And hear the mighty waters rolling evermore.

1842.  Borrow, Bible in Spain, xxiv. Waters sounded, nightingales sang.

1862.  Longf., Wayside Inn, I. Prel. 260. The cataract hurled Its headlong waters from the height.

1891.  Farrar, Darkn. & Dawn, xiii. They … had been baptised in the waters of their native river.

  c.  In figurative context. (See also TROUBLED a. 1, FISH v.¹ 1 c, OIL sb.¹ 3 e.)

  Deep waters (after Ps. lxix. 2, 14), grave distresses and anxieties; also, difficult or dangerous affairs.

1535.  Coverdale, Ps. lxviii. [lxix]. 2. I am come in to depe waters [so also 1611]. Ibid., 14.

1628.  A. Leighton, Appeal to Parlt., 19. Therfore she loves to fish in troubled Waters.

1662.  Stillingfl., Orig. Sacræ, I. iii. § 8. Joseph Scaliger who hath troubled the waters so much concerning the particular circumstances of this translation, yet fully agrees that it was done in the time of Ptolomæus Philadelphus.

c. 1720.  De Foe, Mem. Cavalier (1840), 20. The Cardinal … was … not on very good terms with the queen, but willing to keep smooth water there.

1893.  Stevenson, Catriona, iii. These are deep waters…. Be cautious and think twice.

1902.  W. Adamson, Life Joseph Parker, 204. An unwonted interest was created by Dr. Parker’s visit. The usually quiet ecclesiastical waters were stirred.

  d.  pl. The maritime tract belonging to a particular nation; the seas and oceans in a particular quarter of the globe.

1659.  in Rec. Convent. Burghs Scot. (1878), III. 487. Who … went aboard of tuo Dutch wessellis lying near Inchkeyth, being within our watteris.

1920.  Round Table, Dec., 89. The Alliance … freed us from the necessity of keeping more than a skeleton force in eastern waters in order to defend the Dominions and India.

  e.  Hunting, Steeplechasing, etc. Streams or ditches which a horse is required to leap.

1860.  Ld. W. Lennox, Pict. Sporting Life, I. 328. You will find him [a horse] a splendid fencer, I never saw the like of him at timber or water; no gate or brook will stop him.

1869.  Whyte-Melville, Songs & Verses, 87. Hunters so limber at water and timber Now on the causeway are fain to be led.

1879.  Punch, 13 Dec., 267. I’ve never tried this horse at water.

  f.  slang. To make a hole in the water: to commit suicide by drowning.

1853.  Dickens, Bleak Ho., xlvi. Why I don’t go and make a hole in the water I don’t know. Ibid. (1865), Mut. Fr., I. iii. This is the drunken old chap … wot had offered … to make a hole in the water for a quartern of rum stood aforehand, and kept to his word for the first and last time in his life.

  † g.  pl. Pictorial representations of tracts of water. Obs.

1747.  Francis, trans. Horace, Art P., 34, note. It is chiefly in this View, that Ruisdale’s Waters, and Claude Lorrain’s Skies are so admirable.

  7.  In phrases relating to navigation.

  a.  By water: by ship or boat on the sea or a lake or river or canal. (In OE. = 7 b.)

c. 1100.  O. E. Chron. (MS. D), an. 1016. Þa ʓewende se here to Lundenne, & þa buruh utan ymbesæton, & hyre stearclice onfeaht, æʓðær ʓe be wætere ʓe be lande.

c. 1380.  Wyclif, Wks. (1880), 23. Þei traueilen nyȝt & day, bi watir & lond, in cold & in hete.

c. 1386.  Chaucer, Prol., 400. If þat he faught, and hadde the hyer hond, By water he sente hem hoom to euery lond.

1478.  W. Paston, Jr. in P. Lett. (1897), III. 237. And if it lyke yow that I may come with Alwedyr be watyr.

1547–8.  in Feuillerat, Revels Edw. VI. (1914), 29. The Caring by water to and from grenwy[ch].

1606.  Arraignm. Late Traitors (1872), 6. They went from the tower by water, and came to Westminster.

1661.  Pr. Rupert, in 10th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm., App. V. 8. My goods goe by Ratisbon, soe by land to Wurtzbourg, and from thence by water the rest of the journey.

1771.  Smollett, Humph. Cl., 4 July (1815), 219. In going down the river, by water, he was by mistake put on board of another vessel under sail.

1809.  W. Irving, Knickerb., VII. xi. (1849), 437. The hostile ships prepared for an assault by water.

1864.  T. S. Williams & Simmonds, Engl. Commerc. Corresp., 116. You will please to receive the said goods, and forward them to us by water.

1886.  C. Scholl, Phraseol. Dict., II. 834. Conveyance is, in this case, cheaper by water than by rail.

  b.  On or upon (the) water (ME. † a wætere): on the sea, in naval employments or enterprises. Also, To be on the water, to be in course of transport by sea.

c. 1205.  Lay., 562. I seih his broðer ferden hu heo iuaren weren a wætere & a londe.

1412–20.  Lydg., Troy Bk., IV. 1997. So þat victorie, worship, and honour,… To be reported on water & on lond, Reserued ben hooly to ȝoure hond.

1758.  J. Blake, Mar. Syst., 28. Great numbers of men … are employed in the coasting trade, or otherwise upon the water.

1914.  Daily News, 6 Aug., 5. There is a very large quantity [of tea] on the water on its way from the East.

1914.  Scotsman, 24 Aug., 4/2. Germany has to-day another enemy in the field and on the water.

  c.  In expressions like across, over, on this side the water, to cross the water, the reference is most commonly to the sea.

  The Jacobite toast, ‘the king over the water,’ meaning the Pretender, was expressed by passing the glass of wine over the water decanter when drinking the health of ‘the king.’

1662.  Chas. II., in Cartwright, Madame (Henrietta of Orleans) (1893), 128. People on this side the watter love there profit as well as they do every where else.

1680.  Alsop, Mischief of Impos., v. 31. We may be Schismaticks here in England, when, if we cross the water, we shall be none.

1749.  Fielding, Tom Jones, VII. iv. From these meals she retired about five minutes after the other servants, having only stayed to drink the king over the water.

1765.  Museum Rust., IV. 234. As your work is in such high reputation on this side of the water, it is a matter of great surprise to me, that you should not have many correspondents amongst such of our Irish gentlemen as are improving their estates.

1842.  Dickens, Amer. Notes, xviii. Those partial readers of my former books, across the Water, who met me with an open hand.

1901.  Essex Weekly News, 15 March, 3/3. At Chelmsford the mare would fetch £4 because it was going across the water to be made into meat extract.

1905.  H. G. Wells, Kipps, II. i. § 1. Coote remarked that the sea was good for crossing, and asked Kipps if he had been over the water much.

1914.  Q. Rev., April, 318. The world, as we on our side of the water mainly know it.

  d.  In London the above phrases are often used with reference to the Thames. Similarly (to go) on the water.

1600.  Essex Reb. Exam. (MS.), in Shaks. Cent. Praise (1879), 35. They went all together to the Globe over the water wher the L. Chamberlens men vse to play.

1731–8.  Swift, Pol. Conversat., i. 46. I promis’d to go this Evening to Hyde-Park on the Water; but I protest, I’m half afraid.

1753.  Jane Collier, Art Torment., I. i. (1811), 35. To … go upon the water with you.

1836.  Dickens, Sk. Boz, Shops & Tenants. It is on the Surrey side of the water—a little distance beyond the Marsh-gate. Ibid. (1853), Bleak Ho., xxi. The theatre over, Mr. George comes across the water again, and makes his way to that curious region lying about the Haymarket and Leicester Square.

1887.  T. A. Trollope, What I remember, I. 218. I used to be a good deal upon the water either alone or accompanied by a single friend with a pair of sculls.

  8.  To take (the) water.

  a.  Of an animal or waterfowl, also of a person: To enter the sea, a lake or river, and begin to swim. b. To embark, take ship; in 17–18th c. chiefly, † to take a boat on the Thames (obs.). c. U.S. ‘To abandon one’s position’ (Thornton). d. Of a ship: To be launched.

1580.  H. Smith, in Hakluyt, Voy. (1589), 468. This day … there came a great white beare downe to the water side, and tooke the water of his owne accord.

1607.  Topsell, Four-f. Beasts, 149. The sence of smelling is so quicke in these [Sluth-hounds], that they can follow the footesteps of theeus,… and if the theef take the water, they cast in themselues also.

a. 1676.  Hale, Prim. Orig. Man., II. vii. (1677), 202. As to the Water-Fowls, the difficulty is less, for they can and do supply the weariness of a long flight by taking Water.

1804.  Charlotte Smith, Conversat., etc., I. 27. If I was on horseback on my filly Truffle, and the dogs were to take water,… why I should no more mind plunging in directly [etc.].

1878.  Scribner’s Monthly, XV. 765/1. I heard a splash and saw a deer take the water 300 yards or so above me.

1891.  New Review, Aug., 167. I … lay to to see it take the water, as its evident intention was to cross to the mainland.

  b.  1548.  Patten, Exped. Scot., D iij b. This thus apointed, my lorde Admirall rode back to take the water agayne.

1650.  Trapp, Comm. Num. xxxii. 23. Taking water, with purpose to sail into Flanders.

1689.  Luttrell, Brief Rel. (1857), I. 524. A gentleman taking water the 18th, when he came near London bridge, pull’d a written paper out of his pocket.

1708.  Constit. Watermen’s Co., 81. None plying the Long-Ferry shall ply one about to take Water with another, except, &c.

a. 1754.  Carte, Hist. Eng., IV. 50. Stukely agreeing to go with him, they took water: but were seized in the way to Gravesend.

1793.  Regal Rambler, 91. He took water at the Temple-stairs.

1821.  Scott, Kenilw., xv. For see, the Queen’s barge lies at the stairs, as if her Majesty were about to take water.

1889.  Mrs. Oliphant, Poor Gentl., I. vi. 93. The boating parties that ‘took the water’ there.

  c.  1858.  J. G. Baldwin, Flush Times, 275. ‘If it please your honor, I believe I will take water’ (a common expression, signifying that the person using it would take a nonsuit).

1859.  Bartlett, Dict. Amer. (ed. 2), 470. To Take Water. To run away, make off. A Western expression, doubtless borrowed from sportsmen.

1891.  C. Roberts, Adrift Amer., 200. The fellow, who was really a coward, though nearly twice as big as myself, took water at once.

  d.  1901.  Scotsman, 7 March, 5/6. Launch of the cruiser Kent…. The vessel took the water without a hitch.

  9.  Quantity or depth of water, as sufficient or insufficient for navigation. To draw (so much) water: see DRAW v. 13.

1546.  J. Heywood, Prov., II. viii. (1867), 73. There was no more water than the ship drew.

1580.  H. Smith, in Hakluyt, Voy. (1589), 469. There was not water for the boate betweene Vaigats and the other side: finding no more water, there was no other way but to goe backe as we came in.

1584.  R. Norman, trans. Safegard of Sailers, 7. Item, from the north Buie to the Nese, keepe the north Buie with Memelicke, as far as you can see, till you bring those two steeples or towers into one, and then you shall haue water enough.

1716.  Lond. Gaz., No. 5416/1. There not being Water enough, she was not launched.

1791.  Smeaton, Edystone L., § 86. A clear passage to the South, with a sufficiency of water for the craft at low water.

1791.  R. Mylne, 2nd Rep. Thames, 10. Good Water from thence to Moulsford. Ibid. (1793), Rep. Thames, 35. There is a pretty good water all the way to Datchet Bridge. And from Datchet Bridge, there is a fine navigable water all the way to New-Lock-Shoal.

  b.  With prefixed adj., a particular state of the tide: see HIGH WATER, LOW WATER. † Full water = full tide.

c. 1420.  ? Lydg., Assembly of Gods, 110. Where as I shuld haue fyllyd dykes depe At a full watyr I might nat thedyr crepe Before my seson came to retorne ayeyne.

1603.  Reg. Mag. Sig. Scot., 490/2. Cum potestate colligendi lie wraik et wair fra the full sey to the low watter.

  10.  Water received into a boat or ship through a leak, or by the breaking of the waves over the side. To make water [= F. faire eau, It. far acqua, G. wasser machen]: (of a ship or boat) to leak, or to admit or ‘ship’ water over the side, through a port, etc. Also, to take (in) water in the same sense. † To make foul water (obs.): see FOUL a. 4.

c. 1386.  Chaucer, Pars. T., 363. The same harm dooth som tyme the smale dropes of water, that entren thurgh a litel creuace in to the thurrok, and in the botme of the shipe.

a. 1553.  Udall, Royster D., III. ii. 16. It liked hir as well, to tell you no lies, As water in hir shyppe, or salt cast in hir eies.

1555.  Eden, Decades (Arb.), 77. The vytayles corrupted by taking water at the riftes euyll closed. Ibid., 260. One of theyr shyppes leaked and toke water very sore.

1748.  Anson’s Voy., I. iii. 24. The ship made so much water, that with four pumps and bailing he could not free her.

1799.  Hull Advertiser, 13 July, 1/4. St. Anna, leaky: made 20 inches of water in an hour.

1825.  New Monthly Mag., XV. 74. We found by the well that she [sc. a ship] made no water.

1884.  Law Times, 10 May, 26/2. She was then found to be making five inches of water per hour.

1890.  W. F. Rae, Maygrove, I. iv. 61. The carpenter sounded the well and found that she was making water fast.

1892.  Idler, April, 320. The feebleness … of her stroke … prevented the boat from taking much water.

  † b.  To take (in) water (fig.): ? to have a flaw or weak place. Obs.

1590.  Nashe, Pasquil’s Apol., D 2 b. The rest of his reasons haue taken water, and are rotten before they come to shore.

1640.  Bp. Hall, Episc., II. xx. 202. All the rest are easily freed; St. Jerome and St. Ambrose in the opinion of some seem to take in water.

  11.  As an enveloping or covering medium. In various phrases.

  a.  Under water: below the surface of water; (of land) flooded, submerged. Hence fig. unsuccessful in life; also (Sc.) in debt. Also Sc. † within water, in the same sense.

1529.  Registr. Aberdon. (Maitland Club), I. 396. To sustene … mend and uphald … þe brig forsaid … als weill within wattar as abuf.

1598.  Florio, Sott’acqua, vnder-water, secretlie, out of sight, in hugger mugger.

1660.  Boyle, New Exper. Spring of Air, 363. Cornelius Drebell … is affirm’d … to have contriv’d for the late Learned King James, a Vessel to go under Water.

1708.  Lond. Gaz., No. 4453/2. Our Governor has put all the Country between Bruges and Newport under Water.

1759.  Johnson, Idler, No. 49, ¶ 5. The country was under water.

1816.  Scott, Old Mort., xlii. And then he got favour, and Lord Evandale’s head was under water.

1827.  Faraday, Chem. Manip., xxiv. (1842), 628. Close the tube by the finger,… then open its aperture by removing the finger under water.

1839.  Lockhart, Ballantyne-humbug handled, 113. Mr. James [Ballantyne] … was … many thousands under water at the smash.

1914.  D. Christie, 30 Yrs. in Moukden, vi. 50. Besides the submerged villages, a large part of the suburbs of Moukden was under water.

  b.  Above water: above the surface of the water. Also fig., esp. in to keep one’s head above water, to avoid ruin by a continued struggle.

1662.  J. Davies, trans. Olearius’ Voy. Ambass., 35. To save all but our Carpenter, who was lost for want of having fasten’d on somewhat that might have kept him above water.

1705.  Collier, Ess. Mor. Subj., III. Pain, 11. Unless a Man can reconcile himself to Suffering, and keep his Spirits above Water, ’tis in vain to pretend to Principles.

1742.  Fielding, J. Andrews, III. xiii. There are many who, I fancy, believe that … my pockets … are lined with bank-bills; but I assure you, you are all mistaken…. If I can hold my head above water it is all I can.

1809.  Malkin, Gil Blas, V. i. ¶ 7. To carry me discreetly through the world, and keep my head above water.

1864.  Trollope, Small Ho. Allington, xxv. Modern Lotharios—men who were holding their heads well above water, although it was known that they had played this lady false, and brought that other one to death’s door.

1885.  Field, 3 Oct., 502/2. A number of struggling men [agriculturists], who have managed to keep above water during the bad seasons, must now go under.

  † c.  To lay in water, to lay a-water: to make of no effect or value; to dissipate. Obs.

c. 1394.  P. Pl. Crede, 782. But now þe harlottes han hid thilke rewle, And, for the loue of oure lorde haue leyd hire in water.

1401.  Pol. Poems (Rolls), II. 43. But, Jak, thouȝ thi questions semen to thee wyse, ȝit liȝtly a lewid man maye leyen hem a water.

1579.  Gosson, Sch. Abuse (Arb.), 21. Either Apollo must haue played the Bonesetter, or euery occupation beene laide a water.

1583.  Golding, Calvin on Deut., xcv. 579. If I lende him money nowe, it is layde a water, I loose a whole yeares occupying of it.

1592.  Lyly, Midas, IV. iv. All his expeditions for warres are laid in water.

  † d.  (To swim) between two waters [= F. (nager) entre deux eaux]: midway between the surface and the bottom; fig. keeping an impartial or a temporizing attitude between two parties. Obs.

1579.  Tomson, Calvin’s Serm. Tim., 791/2. How many are there that will swim betwixt two waters, and play the indifferent men, which wuld haue a Gospel betwixt both?

1603.  D. Carleton, in Crt. & Times Jas. I. (1848), I. 28. The king held himself upright betwixt two waters.

1660.  F. Brooke, trans. Le Blanc’s Trav., 3. Sliding the Anchor on one side betwixt two waters.

  12.  A body of water on the surface of the earth.

  a.  gen. A body or collection of standing or flowing water, irrespective of size; a sea, lake, river, etc.

a. 1100.  in Kemble, Cod. Dipl., IV. 204. Mid wateren and mid moren.

1297.  R. Glouc. (Rolls), 19. Wateres he [sc. Engelond] haþ ek inouȝ, ac at uore alle oþere þre Out of þe londe in to þe se, armes as þei it be … Severne & temese; homber is þet þridde.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 5918. All þe waters on þis land Wex son in to blod red.

c. 1400.  Maundev., xiv. (1839), 126. And he schal so passe the Wature, that ys cleped the Brace of seynt George, that ys an Arm of the See.

1542.  Boorde, Dyetary, x. (1870), 253. Standynge waters, the whiche be refresshed with a fresshe spryng, is commendable.

1580.  in Lanc. & Cheshire Wills (Chetham Soc.), I. 72. I have maid a lease of my capitall and chieffe messuages in lyttle Mearley [etc.] … with th’ … waters, ffisshings, moores [etc.] … to Rauffe Tetlowe.

1604.  E. G[rimstone], D’Acosta’s Hist. Indies, II. ii. 84. This region is wonderfully scorched and drie; and so by consequence, hath neither waters nor pastures.

a. 1633.  G. Herbert, Outlandish Prov., 434. Who letts his wife goe to every feast, and his horse drinke at every water, shall neither have good wife nor good horse.

169[?].  Locke, Educ., § 7. Horace … assures us, he was wont in the Winter Season to bathe himself in cold Water. But perhaps Italy will be thought much warmer than England, and the chilness of their Waters not to come near ours in Winter.

1757.  [Burke], Europ. Settlem. Amer., VII. xxi. II. 235. Though the winters are sharp,… yet they are seldom severe enough to freeze any considerable water.

1828.  Duppa, Trav. Italy, etc., 195. This whirlpool [Charybdis] is an agitated water, from seventy to ninety fathoms in depth, circling in quick eddies.

1836.  Hugh Murray, etc., China (Edinb. Cab. Libr.), I. i. 29. Along the lower course of both these magnificent waters [the Hohang-ho and Yang-tse-kiang].

1843.  Penny Cycl., XXVII. 789/2. Zizania aquatica, Canadian Wild Rice,… is common in all the waters of North America from Canada to Florida.

1850.  R. G. Cumming, Hunter’s Life S. Afr. (ed. 2), I. 279. I inquired of the guides if they would lead me to waters in that direction. They all shouted that that was the desert, and that no man ever found water there.

1850.  Tennyson, In Mem., lxvii. In thy place of rest By that broad water of the west.

1885.  Riverside Nat. Hist. (1888), II. 251. They frequent almost every variety of water, from the briny lakes of Utah and California to the clearest mountain-streams of our northern territories.

1898.  Edin. Rev., Jan., 192. Hundreds of the swallow family may sometimes be seen together, hawking for flies over the London waters on a fine April morning.

  b.  A sheet of water, a lake, pool. Cf. the proper names Derwentwater, Wastwater, Ullswater, Hawes Water, etc. in n.w. England.

c. 1250.  Gen. & Ex., 749. Nov ist a water of loðlic ble, Men callið it ðe dede se.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 13760. A water þar es wit-in þair thede Þat es cald piscene in þair lede.

c. 1380.  Wyclif, Serm., Sel. Wks. I. 301. Crist wandride bi þe water of Galile.

c. 1386.  Chaucer, Pars. T. (Harl.), 841. Seint Iohan saith þat aduoutris schuln be in helle in watir [Ellesm. in a stank; F. estanc; L. stagnum] brennyng of fuyr and of brimston.

1641.  J. Jackson, True Evang. T., III. 209. The other is two pots floting upon a pond, or surface of a water with this word, If we knock together, we sink together.

1655.  Walton, Angler, xiii. (1661), 197. The river Dee … springs in Merionnithshire, and as it runs toward Chester, it runs through Pemble-Mere, which is a large water.

1756.  Amory, Buncle (1770), I. 204. A water on the top of a hill, which stood at the other end of the lake.

1799.  A. Young, Agric. Lincoln, 27. A large lawn, a water half a mile long, a very handsome bridge over it.

1842.  Tennyson, Morte d’Arth., 12. On one side lay the Ocean, and on one Lay a great water, and the moon was full.

1896.  Housman, Shropshire Lad, xli. And like a skylit water stood The bluebells in the azured wood.

  c.  A stream, river. In early use often the water of (prefixed to the name of a river). Now chiefly Sc. and north.; often in the names of small rivers, as Water of Esk, Water of Leith, Allan Water, Moffat Water.

  In MHG. and in early and dial. mod.G. wasser is used for ‘river,’ often in apposition with the proper name. The frequent use in Coverdale’s Bible (where 1611 has ‘riuer’) is prob. due to the influence of Luther’s version.

c. 1290.  S. Eng. Leg., John Baptist, 85. Toward þe watere of Jordan.

1297.  R. Glouc. (Rolls), 7654. Þer hii gonne abide Bi tuene þe water of trente & of ouse al so. Ibid., 8850. Bituene tueye wateres he rerde redinge [i.e., built Reading Abbey].

1303.  R. Brunne, Handl. Synne, 10528. Þys batayle was, þurgh here boþe assent, Besyde a watyr, men calle Trent.

13[?].  E. E. Allit. P., A. 107. I wan to a water by schore þat scherez.

1375.  Barbour, Bruce, VII. 5. The kyng … held doun toward a vale, Quhar throu the vod a vattir ran.

1387.  Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), VI. 449. A monke … fil doun of a brigge into a water, and was i-stufled.

1390.  Gower, Conf., II. 102. A stille water … Which hihte of Lethes the rivere.

1423.  Cov. Leet Bk., 46. From the watur of Schirburn, þat rennyth to Whitley vnto Hethesale.

1423.  in Reg. Mag. Sig. Scot., 1430, 30/2. Our fisching of the vater of Anand in al placis and be the see sid.

c. 1450.  Brut, II. 427. The Erle of Armynacke with the dolfynys meyne … mette with the Duke of Clarence and his meyne by this watir of Leyre.

1532.  Cranmer, Let. to Hen. VIII., in Misc. Writ. (Parker Soc.), II. 233. Passaw, Lyntz, and other places adjoining to the waters of Enus and Danubius.

1535.  Coverdale, Ps. cxxxvi[i]. 1. By the waters [1611 rivers] of Babilon we sat downe and wepte. Ibid., Tobit vi. 1. Y^e first night they abode by the water of Tigris [Luther bei dem Wasser Tigris].

1560.  Daus, trans. Sleidane’s Comm., 427. The king went up the water of Some.

1563–87.  Foxe, A. & M. (1596), 1891/2. He answered that I was gone ouer a water.

1598.  Reg. Mag. Sig. Scot., 355/1. As the said burne rynnis north in the watter callit Dewquhilliegach.

1687.  A. Lovell, trans. Thevenot’s Trav., II. 47. Near to this Town, runs a Water that passes under a Bridge of five Arches.

1721.  in W. Macfarlane, Geogr. Collect. (S.H.S.), I. 44. Thorow this Parish runs the River Eugie Eastward, the Inhabitants there call it the water of Strichen.

1728.  Chambers, Cycl., s.v. River, We must not omit here a water in Germany, which is ordinarily supposed to change iron into copper.

1761.  Mrs. F. Sheridan, Sidney Bidulph, III. 184. He was drowned in crossing a deep water on horse back.

1793.  Heron, Observ. Journ. W. Scot., I. 13. Within a little [we] found ourselves crossing the water of Leith.

1865.  Geikie, Scen. & Geol. Scot., i. 13. Streams, intermediate in size between brooks and rivers, are known in Scotland as ‘waters.’

  † d.  Sc. and north. The banks of a river; the inhabitants of the district bordering on a river. (Eng. Dial. Dict.)

a. 1800.  Jamie Telfer, xxv. in Child, Ballads, V. 250/2. Gar warn the water [cf. xxiv. water-side], braid and wide, And warn the Currers i the skaw.

a. 1859.  Denham, Tracts (1892), I. 313. The Coquet Water. The Northumbrians use the above expression in a peculiar sense; signifying thereby the district of the country immediately adjoining the river bearing that name.

  13.  † a. sing. A flood. Obs. b. pl. Floods: esp. in phrase the waters are out.

c. 1250.  Gen. & Ex., 592. Ðo was ilc fleis on wer[l]de slaȝen, ðo gunnen ðe wateres hem wið-draȝen.

1470–85.  Malory, Arthur, I. xiii. 52. Ther blewe a grete wynde & blewe doun her castels and her townes, and after that cam a water and bare hit all awey.

1523.  Surrey, in St. Papers Hen. VIII., IV. 44. By reason of the greate waters that was rysen with this rayne that fell thies 3 dayes paste.

a. 1552.  Leland, Itin., IV. II. 191 a. Leaving Ottemor on the right Hand, that if the Waters had not beene up had beene the next waye.

1617.  Moryson, Itin., II. 74. Some were drowned passing the waters then very high.

1624.  Walter, Diary (Camden), 77. The great army of Spinola before Breda,… was removed by God him self, who sent a great water and drowned his trenches, by means whereof he was enforced to remove.

1743.  Mrs. E. Montagu, Corr. (1906), I. 141. We were met … by a Messenger … to tell us the waters were out at Burroughbridge, and that we could not pass them. Ibid., 142. I … agreed to go on to the place he mentioned, and then send a messenger to see if the waters had fallen.

1853.  Dickens, Bleak Ho., ii. The waters are out in Lincolnshire…. The adjacent low-lying ground, for half a mile in breadth, is a stagnant river.

  † 14.  Astr. The portion of the constellation Aquarius which is figured as a stream of water. [= L. Aqua, Gr. Ὓδωρ.] Obs.

1551.  Recorde, Cast. Knowl. (1556), 267. Besyde these 22 starres, there are other 19, whiche in their dyuers and croked position doo make a forme of a Ryuer, and are called the Water whiche Aquarye sheddeth.

  II.  15. The substance of which the liquid ‘water’ is one form among several; now known to be a chemical compound of two volumes of hydrogen and one of oxygen (formula H₂O); in ancient speculation regarded as one of the four, and in pre-scientific chemistry as one of the five elements of which all bodies are composed.

971.  Blickl. Hom., 35. Ure lichoma was ʓesceapen of feower ʓesceaftum, of eorðan, & of fyre, & of wætere, & of lyfte.

a. 1300.  [see EARTH sb.¹ 14].

1390.  Gower, Conf., III. 92. Above therthe kepth his bounde The water, which is the secounde Of elementz.

1500–20.  Dunbar, Poems, x. 13. Fyre, erd, air, and watter cleir.

1549.  Compl. Scot., v. 33. This material varld that is maid of the four elementis, of the eird, the vattir, the ayr, ande the fyir.

1669.  W. Simpson, Hydrol. Chym., 258. The like happens in all Vegetables, for Water is the material Principle of Vegetables.

1704.  J. Harris, Lex. Techn., I. Water, which the Chymists call Phlegm, is the 4th of the 5 Chimical Principles, and one of the Passive ones.

1732.  A. Stewart, in Phil. Trans., XXXVII. 330. I think the word (Spirits) was an unhappy Choice [to designate the nervous fluid] … And the simple Qualities of a pure and perfectly defecated elementary Water, will better suit all that our Senses can discover of it.

1812–6.  Playfair, Nat. Philos. (1819), I. 235. On the different quantities of heat … united to the substance which we call water, depends its existence in the state of a solid, a liquid, or an elastic fluid.

1881.  Sir W. Armstrong, in Nature, 8 Sept., 450/2. Water, being oxidised hydrogen, must be placed in the same category as the earths.

  III.  A liquid resembling (and usually containing) water.

  16.  An aqueous decoction, infusion or tincture, used medicinally or as a cosmetic or a perfume.

13[?].  S. Eng. Leg. (MS. Bodl. 779), in Archiv Stud. neu. Spr., LXXXII. 311. Lechis also of flourus wateris makeþ I-lome & oþer þingus þat þer-to by-come.

c. 1386.  Chaucer, Can. Yeom., 906. What is Magnasia…? It is a water that is maad, I seye, Of elementes foure.

1523–34.  Fitzherb., Husb., § 46. There be dyuers waters, & other medicyns, that wolde mende hym [sc. a blind sheep].

a. 1533.  Ld. Berners, Golden Bk. M. Aurel. (1546), I ij b. He wold washe his handes with very well smellyng waters.

1599–1600.  in Nichols, Progr. Q. Eliz. (1823), III. 458. By Mr. William Goodres, two glasses of pretyous water.

1600.  Surflet, Country Farm, III. lxxi. 600. A water vsed amongst the Ladies of the Court, to keepe a faire white and fresh in their faces: Take a white pigeon, a pinte of goats milke [etc.].

1617.  J. Taylor (Water P.), Three Wks. Observ., D 3 b. Viols, Gallipots, Glasses, Boxes … wherein … were Waters, Oyles, Vnguents, [etc.].

1654.  R. Whitlock, Ζωοτομια, 57. Can cure all Diseases, from Aries, head and face, to Pisces, the Feet, with a Water and a Powder.

1662.  J. Davies, trans. Olearius’ Voy. Ambass., 298. They take Tobacco, and drink of a certain black water, which they call Cahwa [= coffee].

1824.  Miss L. M. Hawkins, Annaline, I. 255. When the pain was violent they spread light linen dipped in aromatic water over her throbbing temples.

1871.  Garrod, Mat. Med. (ed. 3), 4. The waters of pharmacy consist of water holding in solution very small quantities of oils or other volatile principles.

  b.  With defining word, applied to liquid preparations of various kinds.

  For illustration of the diversity of application, see COLOGNE-water, LAVENDER WATER, ORANGE-FLOWER-water, ROSE-WATER; BARLEY-WATER, † CHICKEN-water; BARYTA-water, GUM-water, LIME-WATER; LITHIA-water, POTASS water, SODA-WATER.

c. 1407.  Lydg., Reson & Sens., 5737. Of tast also and of flauour It was swetter than watir rose A man in helthe to dyspose.

a. 1425.  trans. Arderne’s Treat. Fistula, etc., 82. Þis is called watre of alum…. And þis watre mundifieþ in coldand, bot watre of sulphur mundifieþ in hetyng or chaufand.

a. 1440.  Sir Degrev., 1393. With … Watyr of everrose clere, They wesche ryȝth thare.

1472.  Norton, Ord. Alch., v. in Ashm. (1652), 77. As Water of Litharge.

1502.  Priv. Purse Exp. Eliz. York (1830), 8. A present of watier of rooses.

1819.  J. G. Children, Chem. Anal., 426. If water of barya be added to a solution of silicated potassa, the silica and barya fall down in combination.

1836–41.  Brande, Chem. (ed. 5), 75. He … observed the rapidity with which baryta-water absorbs carbonic acid from the air.

1844.  Hoblyn, Dict. Med. (ed. 2), Mastic Water. A remedy employed by the Albanian physicians in infantile diarrhœa; it is simply water which has been boiled along with mastic.

  † c.  A distilled alcoholic liquor, = STRONG WATER 2, † HOT WATER 2. Also burning water (= med.L. aqua ardens, F. eau ardente), alcohol.

1460–70.  Bk. Quinte Essence, 6. Haue biside ȝou a uessel … fillid ful of the beste brennynge watir þat ȝe may fynde.

1471.  Ripley, Comp. Alch., V. xxiv. in Ashm. (1652), 154. What Salts, what Powders, what Oyles, and waters fort.

1624.  Capt. J. Smith, Virginia, V. 174. Some hauing some good and comfortable waters, fetched them and dranke one to another.

1789–96.  Morse, Amer. Geog., II. 116. Rum, brandy, and other distilled waters.

  † d.  Contextually for STRONG WATER 1 = AQUAFORTIS. Also corrosive water, any strong acid.

1609.  J. Davies (Heref.), Holy Rood (Grosart), 4/1. Vpon the Crosse (as on a Touch) we may Trie our Soules value whether great, or small: If there, it (washt with Water-Strong) doth stay, We may be sure its most Angelicall.

1691.  Ray, Creation, I. (1704), 31. Aquafortis or the like corrosive Waters.

1736.  T. Atkinson, Conf. Painter & Engraver, 23. But the general Way [of Etching] is, to work the Offskip tenderly, letting the Water [called ‘aqua fortis’ above] bite but a little, and then [etc.].

  17.  Used to denote various watery liquids found in the human or animal body, either normally or in disease. † To run on a water, to discharge a watery liquid.

1533.  Elyot, Cast. Helthe (1541), 83 b. Whan they [children] waxe elder, than be they greved with … wormes of the bealy, waters, swellynges under the chynne; &c.

1580.  Blundevil, Curing Horses Dis., cxli. 61 b. Of the Crowne scab…. The cronets will be alwaies mattering, and run on a water.

1643.  J. Steer, trans. Exp. Chyrurg., iii. 7. Pustles doe arise, in the which is contained cleere and white water.

1801.  Monthly Mag., Feb., 40/2. The immediate cause of her death was found to be an accumulation of water on the chest.

1860.  Mayne, Expos. Lex., s.v. Cotunnius, Water of Cotunnius, a peculiar fluid found within the membrane lining the vestibule and semi-circular canals of the internal ear.

  b.  Water on (or † in) the brain, in the head: hydrocephalus. Cf. G. wasser im hirn, im kopf (haben)

c. 1790.  in Jrnl. Friends Hist. Soc. (1918), 79. The D[ea]r Lamb was … taken of by a short illness of the docter thaught Water on its Brain.

1806.  Med. Jrnl., XV. 133. The water in the brain was not, I believe, the immediate cause of death.

1852.  J. Savory, Dom. Med. (ed. 4), 261. Water in the head is almost peculiar to infants, and chiefly to those of a scrofulous or rickety habit.

1861.  Whyte-Melville, Good for N., iii. Some people thought he had gout in the stomach, others vowed it was water on the brain.

  c.  The fluid contained in the amniotic cavity (liquor amnii); now usually plural. The effusion of this fluid from the womb, which precedes the exclusion of the fœtus, is popularly denoted by the expression ‘the waters have broken.’

1688.  Depos. Birth Pr. Wales, 20. Whilst her Majesty was sitting trembling, her Water broke.

1754–64.  Smellie, Midwifery, II. 425. When the membranes broke, a large quantity of waters were discharged.

1880.  J. E. Burton, Midwifery, 27. The ‘waters’ … are a whitish, muddy-looking liquid, the quantity of which greatly varies.

  d.  Tears. (So often in the Bible: see the concordances.)

1362.  Langl., P. Pl., A. V. 44. And made William to weope watur with his eȝen.

1390.  Gower, Conf., I. 115. Ther was no wiht, if he hem syhe, Fro water mihte kepe his yhe.

c. 1400.  Destr. Troy, 7171. Care hade the kyng for Cassibilon his son,… Full tendurly with teris tynt myche watur.

c. 1470.  Golagros & Gaw., 1131. The watter wet his chekis.

1562.  J. Heywood, Prov. & Epigr. (1867), 217. His eyes ran a water.

1563–83.  Foxe, A. & M., 1215/1. With that the water stoode in Marbeckes eyes, why weepest thou quoth the Gentleman?

1622.  in Foster, Eng. Factories Ind. (1908), II. 52. [It] made the watter roune doune my checks to looke one them.

1840.  Dickens, Old C. Shop, vi. A dexterous rap on the nose with the key, which brought the water into his eyes.

  e.  Saliva; now only, flow of saliva provoked by appetite. † To set (a person’s) teeth on water = ‘to make his mouth water’ (see MOUTH sb. 2 c, WATER v. 12).

1598.  Florio, Tutto in sapore, louing earnestly, euen till ones teeth run a water.

1601.  Holland, Pliny, XXXIII. xi. II. 481. Their rich plate set their enemies teeth on water.

1655.  trans. Com. Hist. Francion, III. 74. He delighted it seemed, to eate that which was good, and rare before us, purposely to set our teeth on water.

1661.  Lovell, Hist. Anim. & Min., 56. The water comming from the pallat mixed with honey and salt, rubbed on the head, &c. helpeth.

1685.  H. More, Illustr. Daniel, 334. Those fat and fair Objects that make Mens mouths run a-water so.

1830.  Cobbett, Hist. Geo. IV., vi. § 334. He has seen them flopping their jaws, the water running out of their mouths; and has seen them go through all the motions of devouring.

187[?].  W. S. Gilbert, ‘Bab’ Ballads, Etiquette, 26. For the thought of Peter’s oysters brought the water to his mouth.

  † f.  All on a water: covered with sweat. Obs.

1530.  Palsgr., 562/1. He hath gestylled my horse in the stabyll tyll he hath made hym all on a water [tant quil la mys tout en eaue].

  g.  The liquid of oysters.

c. 1430.  Two Cookery-bks., 13. Take grete Oystrys…; an take þe water of þe Oystrys, & ale, an brede y-straynid.

  18.  esp. Urine. To make water [= F. faire de l’eau]: to urinate. To pass water (PASS v. 50): to void urine (usually with reference to obstruction or the absence of it). To hold (one’s) water: to retain urine.

1375.  Barbour, Bruce, XIII. 603. He leit thame nocht haf sic lasier As anys wattir for to ma.

1432–50.  trans. Higden (Rolls), I. 359. Mony men of that cuntre vse to make water and to send furthe theire vryne syttenge.

1535.  Coverdale, 2 Kings ix. 8. And I wyl rote out from Achab, euen him that maketh water agaynst the wall.

1577.  T. Kendall, Flowers Epigr., 46. The drinke his bladder burdened so, That he must let his water goe.

1580.  Hester, trans. Fioravanti’s Disc. Chirurg., 19. To helpe those that can-not hold their water.

1584.  B. R., trans. Herodotus, II. 97 b. Hys syght shoulde eftsoones bee restored agayne, if in case hee washed hys eyes in the water of a woman, whych [etc.].

1591.  Shaks., Two Gent., IV. iv. 41. When did’st thou see me heaue vp my leg, and make water against a Gentlewomans farthingale?

1607.  Topsell, Four-f. Beasts, 754. The nature of the wolfe both in making his water, as also in voyding his excrements is like vnto a Dogs.

1626.  Bacon, Sylva, § 998. The Wound must be at first Washed cleane, with White Wine, or the Parties owne Water.

1719.  D’Urfey, Pills, III. 3. Come ye broken Maids that … can never hold your Water.

1786.  in J. Howard, Lazarettos (1789), 195. No prisoner … shall … make water against any part of the building, under the penalty of forfeiting for each offence … four-pence.

1801.  Med. Jrnl., V. 409. Has been in this state three months; makes only three-quarters of a pint of water in 24 hours.

1860.  Flor. Nightingale, Notes on Nursing, 199. She will know the shiver which betrays the formation of matter—that which shows the unconscious patient’s desire to pass water—that which precedes fever.

1884.  Thompson, Tumours of Bladder, 35. Case 34…. Last four years much difficulty and pain in passing water:… Now passes water about every hour, day and night.

1884.  Bible (R. V.), 2 Kings xviii. 27. To drink their own water with you.

1897.  Allbutt’s Syst. Med., IV. 281. The quantity of water voided by a healthy adult in 24 hours is from 40 to 50 ounces.

  b.  In references (formerly much more common than now) to the inspection of a patient’s urine as a means of diagnosis. (Cf. WATER-DOCTOR.) Phrases, to † cast (CAST v. 40), † look, † look in (a person’s) water.

1377.  Langl., P. Pl., B. II. 224. Thanne loured leches and lettres þei sent, Þat he shole wonye with her wateres to loke.

c. 1440.  Alphabet of Tales, 41. A leche felid his powce & lukid his watir, bod he cuthe fynde no sekenes in hym.

c. 1530.  Beauty & Gd. Prop. Women (facs.), C j. I haue shewid thy water to thy phesycyon.

1535.  Joye, Apol. Tindale (Arb.), 22. But I wyll not be his Phisicion and decerne his water at this tyme.

1546.  J. Heywood, Prov., I. xi. (1867), 33. By my faith you come to looke in my water. And for my comfort … Ye would, by my purs, geue me a purgacion.

1550.  Crowley, Last Trumpet, 826. And shewe by what right thou maist take Two pence for the sight of water, When thou knowest not therbi to make The sick man one farthinge better.

1562.  Child-Marr. (1897), 75. Sir Roberte sawe this respondentes water; & told hym he might be easilie holpen, & gave hym a drinke.

1597.  Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., I. ii. 2. Fal. … What saies the Doct. to my water? Pag. He said sir, the water it selfe was a good healthy water: but for the party that ow’d it, he might haue more diseases then he knew for.

1600.  Rowlands, Lett. Humours Blood, vi. Heele looke vnto your water well enough.

1614.  Jackson, Creed, III. 299. But what if some forreiner should of set purpose send a dead-mans water to trie this grand-Phisitions skill.

1625.  Hart, Anat. Ur., I. ii. 28. They haue bene with them who haue told them wonders by the water.

1642.  Fuller, Holy & Prof. St., II. ii. 53. The good Physician … trusteth not the single witnesse of the water if better testimony may be had.

a. 1709.  J. Lister, Autobiog. (1842), 43. The day after that I sent my water to a physician, who sent me word he could make no judgment of my case.

1712.  Addison, Spect., No. 505, ¶ 7. I can interpret their Dreams by seeing their Water.

1784.  Morn. Chron., 21 April, 1/3, Advt. Miss Mollitor … flatters herself that by seeing the water of the patient to tell if there be a cure or not.

  † c.  In fig. phrases, to attend, watch (a person’s) waters [= G. einem das wasser besehen], to scrutinize his conduct rigorously. Obs.

1700.  T. Brown, Amusem. Ser. & Com., iii. Wks. 1720, III. 36. I … judged he had been whipping it in with the Gentlewomen before mentioned, tho’ ’twas not convenient to tell him so, lest his Wife should watch his Waters more narrowly than she had done.

1706.  E. Ward, Wooden World Diss. (1708), 9. What can we expect less in the succeeding Year, than that his great Proxy, the first Lieutenant, attend his Waters purely to prevent an Interregnum?

1709.  Mrs. Manley, Secr. Mem., 151. Her Brother … was gone abroad … when this Rogue … courted her, or else he had never got his Will of her; he would have watch’d his Waters for him to some purpose.

  19.  Applied to vegetable juices.

1585.  Higins, Junius’ Nomencl., 142/2. Lachryma,… the water, moysture, or dropping of a tree that turneth to gumme.

1585.  T. Washington, trans. Nicholay’s Voy., I. viii. 8 b. Another frute … melteth in ones mouth, giuing a water as it were sugred.

1589.  Bigges, Summarie Drake’s W. Ind. Voy., 14. And within this white of the [cochos] nut lyeth a water, which is whitish and very cleere, to the quantitie of halfe a pint or thereabouts.

1697.  Dampier, Voy., I. 292. While the Nut [sc. coco-nut] is growing, all the inside is full of this Water, without any Kernel.

1842.  Anne Pratt, Pict. Catech. Bot., v. 79. [In the pitcher plant] the liquid is a clear water, very pleasant and refreshing to the palate.

  IV.  Appearances resembling water.

  20.  The transparency and luster characteristic of a diamond or a pearl. The three highest grades of quality in diamonds were formerly known as the first, second, and third water; the phrase of the first water survives in popular use as a designation of the finest quality, often applied to jewels generally.

  [The equivalent use is found in all the mod. Rom. and Teut. langs.; it may have come from Arabic, where this sense of mā’, water, is a particular application of the sense ‘luster, splendor’ (e.g., of a sword).]

1607.  Shaks., Timon, I. i. 18. Jew. I have a Iewel heere…. Mer. ’Tis a good forme. Jewel. And rich: heere is a Water looke ye. Ibid. (1608), Per., II. ii. 102.

1611.  Cotgr., s.v. Eau, Perle de belle eau, of a faire luster, or water. Ibid., s.v. Esclat, Diamond de bon esclat,… a dyamond of a good luster, or water.

1622.  Malynes, Anc. Law-Merch., 75. The best waters are whitish, inclining to the blew, which maketh the best illustration and play, as some call it.

1667.  Phil. Trans., II. 429. If it [the Diamond] have no good water, or have a Bleb or Flaw, the Carat will not be worth but from 10 to 30 Crowns.

1675.  R. Vaughan, Coin & Coinage, 241. Value of Pearls. East India Yellow water. 1 Carrat 00 07 s. 6 d. Ibid., 242. A later Valuation … of the best Silver water.

1676.  Lond. Gaz., No. 1057/4. Lost…, one single Rose Diamond set in a Ring close shankt, and enameled with blew, a fair spread Stone clean and good water. Ibid. (1678), No. 1330/4. A Table stone, cut in India, perfect square, of the Second water, weighing 5 grains full.

1698.  Fryer, Acc. E. India & P., 213. The Diamond that is Sandy, or hath any Foulness in it, or is of a Blue, Brown, or Yellow Water, is not worth half the Price of a perfect Stone of a White Water.

1718.  Lady M. W. Montagu, Lett. to C’tess of Mar, 10 March. A vest … of purple cloth, straight to her shape, and thick set, on each side … with pearls of the best water.

1727.  A. Hamilton, New Acc. E. Ind., II. xlv. 148. They have small Diamonds, but their Waters being inclined to be yellow, are not so much in Esteem as those of Golcondah.

1732.  Fielding, Miser, V. iii. I defy any jeweller in town to show you their equals; they are, I think, the finest water I ever saw.

1753.  Chambers’ Cycl., Suppl., s.v. Diamond, The first water in Diamonds means the greatest purity and perfection of their complexion, which ought to be that of the clearest drop of water. When Diamonds fall short of this perfection, they are said to be of the second or third water, &c. till the stone may be properly called a coloured one.

1832.  G. R. Porter, Porcelain & Gl., 220. Some artists have even given to this [sc. paste in imitation of the diamond] a very considerable play of light, or, as it is technically termed, water.

1835.  Dickens, Sk. Boz, Parish, ii. He … wore a brilliant of the first water on the fourth finger of his left hand.

1910.  Ld. Rosebery, Chatham, i. 4. When Rondet, the royal jeweller, came from Paris to receive it [sc. a diamond], he criticised the water of the stone.

  b.  fig. Of the first (occas. purest, rarest, finest) water: originally (with implied comparison to a jewel), of the highest excellence or purity; now only following a personal designation (often of reproach) with the sense ‘out-and-out,’ ‘thorough-paced.’ [Similarly in Fr.]

1824.  Dibdin, Libr. Comp., 587. Ascham is a thorough-bred philologist, and of the purest water.

1825.  T. Hook, Sayings, Ser. II. Man of Many Fr. (Colburn), 95. He was certain her family were by no means of ‘the first water.’

1826.  Scott, Jrnl., 6 Dec. He was a … swindler of the first water.

1836–7.  Sir W. Hamilton, Metaph. (1870), II. xxix. 201. Gassendi himself, who is justly represented by Mr. Stewart as a sensationalist of the purest water.

1854.  H. Miller, Sch. & Schm., xvi. (1858), 360. Cousin William … had a heart of the finest water.

1869.  Eng. Mech., 17 Dec., 329/3. All this may seem like paradoxism of the first water.

1883.  T. Watts, in 19th Cent., March, 422. His wit, though not abundant and not of ‘the rarest water’ was quite unique.

1905.  W. B. Boulton, Gainsborough, 194. He … assumed the airs of a beau and lady-killer of the first water.

  21.  (See quot.) Cf. WATERED ppl. a. 5. [So G. wasser, F. eau.]

1721.  Bailey, Water (among Dyers), a certain Lustre imitating Waves, set on Silks, Mohairs, &c.

  V.  22. a. = WATER-COLOUR. b. pl. Water-color paintings. colloq. (Cf. OIL sb.¹ 4, 4 b.)

1787.  Exhib. R. Acad., 17. Portraits of the Princess Royal, and Princess Augusta, in water.

1877.  Paper Hanger, etc., 142. The best work for picture and looking-glass frames is done in water.

1909.  Daily Chron., 4 June, 5/5. I want you to paint as many pictures as you can, oils or waters, just as you like.

  VI.  23. The lap of one shingle in roofing.

1703.  R. Neve, City & C. Purchaser, 242. They commonly make 3 Waters, (as they phrase it,) that is, they commonly hang 3 shingles in heighth, in the length of one; so that if the Shingles are 12 Inches long, they are laid at 4 Inches Gage.

  VII.  attrib. and Comb.

  24.  Simple attributive uses. a. Designating vessels in which water is held or kept, as water-bail, -bucket, -cruet, † -fetles, -gourd, -jar, † -say, -scoop, † -skeet, -skin, † -stean, -trough, -tub, † -tun, -vat, -vessel. See also WATER-BOTTLE, -GLASS, etc.

c. 1000.  Ags. Gosp., John ii. 6. Ðar wæron soðlice aset syx stænene wæter-fatu.

c. 1200.  Ormin, 1411. Þa sexe waterrfetless, Þatt stodenn wiþþ þatt waterr þær.

c. 1386.  Chaucer, Can. Yeom. Prol. & T., 681. And in the water vessel he it caste.

1387.  Trevisa, Higden, VI. 183. In a water stene [L. in hydria aquatica].

1391.  Earl Derby’s Exp. (Camden), 74. Pro portagio de watertonnes vsque manerium Episcopi.

1420.  in For. Acc. 3 Hen. VI., G/2. j Waterbaille … vj Waterscoupes.

1459–60.  Durham Acc. Rolls (Surtees), 152. Cum oþere carpentr. fact. circa molendinum de Shyncliff et leȝ Watertrowe.

1477–9.  Rec. St. Mary at Hill (1905), 82. For a watir payle, iij d.

1487–8.  Durham Acc. Rolls (Surtees), 651. Pro i fatt et i watersay.

1533.  MS. Rawlinson D., 776, fol. 136 b. ij flatt hooppis … for the water Tubbe.

1552.  Inv. Ch. Goods York, etc. (Surtees), 66. ij watter bokettes of latyne.

1556.  Withals, Dict. (1562), 47 b/2. A water tankerd, cadus aquarius.

1592.  Nashe, P. Penilesse, E 3 b. The water-tankard wil keepe vnder the insurrection of their shoulders.

1613.  W. Browne, Brit. Past., I. ii. (1616), 31. And for the Maid that had perform’d each thing, She in the Water-paile bad leaue a Ring.

1615.  E. S., Britain’s Buss, B. Two waterskeits, to wet the sailes.

1667.  in Pettus, Fodinæ Reg. (1670), 35. One new large Water-wheel with Water-troughs.

1773.  Exhib. R. Acad., 30. A horse tied to a water-trough, in a Farm-yard.

1834.  Marryat, P. Simple, xli. I … set my first lieutenant to work getting in the ballast and water-tanks.

1842.  Dickens, Amer. Notes, ii. The water-jug is plunging and leaping like a lively dolphin.

1853.  J. D. H. Dale, Cerem. Roman Rite, 93. The Subdeacon elevates a little the water-cruet towards the Bishop.

1867.  Lady Herbert, Cradle L., i. 8. Picturesque water-carriers with their water-skins.

1869.  Browning, Ring & Bk., IX. 63. Clouted shoon, staff, scrip and water-gourd.

1886.  Ruskin, Præterita, I. iii. 106. I went head foremost into the large water-tub kept for the garden.

  b.  Pertaining to the storage or distribution of water in considerable quantities; as water-ditch, -lock, † -place, -room, -stank, -station; water-meter, † -purveyance, -service, -storage, -supply.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 11677. Vr water purueance es gan, And in þis wildernes es nan.

1473.  Rental Bk. Cupar-Angus (1879), I. 189. Water-stankis … of sic depnes that ged eyls and fyscis … ma be … kepit.

1670.  Blount, Glossogr. (ed. 3), Water-lock, a watering place fenced with walls, rails, or bars, &c.

1703.  Dampier, Voy., III. I. 88. The Governor very kindly sent an Officer to clear the Water-place for my Men.

1735.  in Trans. Cumberld. & Westm. Antiq. Soc. (N.S.), XX. 172. Taking water for the use of their families out of the water ditch in the said meadow.

1809.  Kendall, Trav., II. xlvi. 132. The water is led by troughs into a range of vats or rooms, distinguished by the name of water-rooms.

1815.  Pocklington Canal Act, 4. Pens for water, water-stanks, dams.

1840.  H. S. Tanner, Canals & Rail Roads U. S., 263. Water stations, places where locomotives obtain their supplies of water.

1848.  W. W. Lloyd, in Numism. Chron., XI. 114. The local water-service.

1858.  Simmonds, Dict. Trade, Water-meter, an instrument for registering the supply of water.

1872.  Routledge’s Ev. Boy’s Ann., July, 500/2. A terrible year of water-famine.

1885.  Weekly Notes, 28 March, 67/2. The house had become uninhabitable through failure of the water-supply.

1890.  A. R. Wallace, Darwinism, 23. The absence of rivers or water-storage.

1907.  Q. Rev., Oct., 391. Where the water-rights of villages and small towns are … threatened.

  c.  Used for the carriage or transport of water, as water barge, boat, ship; water animal, mule.

1727.  A. Hamilton, New Acc. E. Ind., I. xxviii. 346. He built some Water Boats,… and, by these boats furnished the Garison with good Water.

1805.  Collingwood, 18 Oct., in Nicolas, Disp. Nelson (1846), VII. 127, note. I shall be glad to see the Water-Ships as many of the Fleet are getting low.

1898.  Daily News, 3 May, 8/3. The baggage and water animals. Ibid. (1900), 17 March, 7/4. Indians, with their plucky and clever little water-mules, were ordered right up into the firing line.

1918.  Qua Iboe Mission Quarterly, Feb., 121/2. Water-barges to replenish our tanks were soon alongside.

  d.  Designating a channel in which water runs, or any contrivance for facilitating or regulating its flow, as water-channel, -cock, † -conduct, -conduit, -cut, -dam, -gutter, -main, -port, -sewer, -squirt, -tap, † -trunk, † -wising. See also WATERCOURSE, -FURROW, etc.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 11942. Þe water wissing can he ditt Þat water to þe lak broght.

c. 1450.  Godstow Reg., 44. A plase to make an hede of her water cundit.

1535.  Coverdale, Nahum ii. 6. The water portes [1611 the gates of the rivers; Luther die Thore der Wasser] shal be opened and the kinges palace shall fall.

1577–87.  Holinshed, Chron., III. 1186/1. Not forgetting to make a water-conduit for the ease of washing.

1596.  Dalrymple, trans. Leslie’s Hist. Scot. (S.T.S.), I. 42. Thay lay in the furdes and waterdames.

1598.  R. Bernard, trans. Terence, Phormio, IV. iv. (1607), 432. A snake fel from the tyles through the water gutter.

1600.  J. Pory, trans. Leo’s Africa (1896), II. 402. So soon as the said water-conduct was derived unto the Towne, he caused it to be divided.

1662.  Atwell, Faithf. Surveyor, 95. The water-squirt which will throw a whole hogs-head of water to the top of a house at once.

1764.  Museum Rust., II. 234. To bestow a watering on my fields, by means of water-trunks, immediately after my first crop of hay is got off.

1803.  W. Tatham, Rep. Impediments Thames, 71. At this place there is a water-main which crosses over to the Middlesex shore.

1833.  Loudon, Encycl. Archit., § 16. A water-cock and wash-hand-basin.

1846.  Comic Almanack (1870), 91. The common water-plug offers a capital medium for illustrating the leading principles in hydrostatics and hydraulic.

1880.  J. Dunbar, Pract. Papermaker, 47. Connect the other end of the pipe to the nearest water-tap.

1883.  W. C. Russell, Sailors’ Lang., Water-ports, openings in a ship’s bulwarks to free the deck of water.

1902.  Cornish, Naturalist Thames, 9. Down every ditch, runnel, and water-cut, the turbid waters were hurrying.

1914.  E. F. Knox, in Blackw. Mag., Dec., 780/1. Fields of young wheat and barley, intersected by water-channels, shimmered in the silvery light as a gentle breeze swept over them.

  e.  Designating a machine that is worked or driven by water, a part of a machine in which water is heated, a contrivance for drawing or circulating water, and the like; as water-back, -barrel, -bellows, -blast, -box, chamber, † -corn-mill, -drum, -gin, † -grist-mill, † -motion, -motor, -trap, -trompe, -turbine, -whim.

1580.  Durham Wills (Surtees), II. 32. All my interest in the water corne mylne and farmehold in Kirklawe.

1660.  R. D’Acres, Elem. Water-drawing, Pref. The innumerable shapes, and various forms and fashions of Water-Gins.

1661.  [T. Powell], Hum. Industry, 35. De Aquaticis Machinis, Of Water Motions.

1725.  in Lancs. & Cheshire Wills (Chetham Soc.), I. 178. A wattercorn Milln called Accorinton Milln.

1763.  in Smiles, Engineers (1861), I. 359, note. At the mouth of the cavern is erected a water-bellows.

1786.  T. Jefferson, Writ. (1859), II. 12. A water-grist mill for grinding the corn of the neighborhood.

1819.  Rees, Cycl., Water-Bellows,… a machine used to blow air into a furnace, by the action of a column of water falling through a vertical tube.

1824.  R. Stuart, Hist. Steam Engine, 47. The pipe, 1, connects the air-chamber, A, with the inner water-chamber, a.

1833.  T. Sopwith, Mining Distr. Alston Moor, 131. The water blast … consists of a wooden pipe placed in a shaft, and down which a stream of water is kept running, while a quantity of fresh air is carried with it.

1839.  De la Beche, Rep. Geol. Cornwall, etc., xv. 572. Water-whims … are seldom employed in western Cornwall.

1895.  J. H. Collins, Metal Mining, 122. Sent down by means of a fan blower, steam jet, turbine, or a water-trompe.

1875.  Knight, Dict. Mech., Water-back, a permanent reservoir at the back of a stove or range, to utilize the heat of the fire in keeping a supply of hot water. Ibid., Water-barrel (Mining), a large wrought-iron barrel with a self-acting valve in the bottom, used in drawing water where there are no pumps.

1876.  Encycl. Brit., IV. 688/1. In this machine there are two water-boxes. Ibid., 468/1. It is from the drying up of the fluid in water-traps that uninhabited houses are so frequently offensive.

1877.  Wood, Nature’s Teach., 463. The Water Turbine.

1881.  Encycl. Brit., XII. 520/1. Water motors may be divided into water-pressure engines, water wheels, and turbines.

1884.  C. G. W. Lock, Workshop Receipts, Ser. III. 388/1. The draught is sometimes kept up by … a water-drum, an apparatus which sucks in air by means of the friction of a jet of water.

  f.  Designating implements or contrivances used in or on the water, as water-cord, -dress, -staff, -stang.

a. 1570.  Durham Depos. (Surtees), 263. The said William Sander … dyd … smite at this deponent with a water staff, suche as fishermen hangs ther nett upon.

1866.  in G. C. Bompas, Life F. Buckland, viii. (1885), 163. My water-dress put on, the nets and cans, &c. packed, we started in a carriage.

1878.  Cumberld. Gloss., Watter stang, a pole fixed across a stream in lieu of a bridge or fence.

1904.  Gallichan, Fishing Spain, 73. A fifty-yard length of water-cord that I had in the bag.

  8.  Designating (a) a water-tight contrivance, as water-joint, -packer; (b) a body of water that makes a vessel air-tight or gas-tight, as water-lute, -luting, -seal.

1837.  Civil Engin. & Arch. Jrnl., I. 12/1. Both surfaces … fit into each other, and form a perfectly secure water-joint.

1841.  S. Clegg, Treat. Coal-Gas, 111. This arch-pipe is made of thin plate-iron, sealed at each end by a water-joint.

1844.  H. Stephens, Bk. Farm, II. 206. The shallow water-luting, formed by the marginal groove.

1881.  Raymond, Mining Gloss., Water-packer, a water-tight packing of leather between the pipe and the walls of a bore-hole.

1884.  Century Mag., Dec., 259/1. The trap … depends for its efficiency on the permanence of its water-seal.

1917.  Chamb. Jrnl., Dec., 831/2. A water-seal renders the joint air-tight.

  h.  Designating substances that harden under water and so become impervious to it, as water-cement, -lime, -mortar. Cf. HYDRAULIC a. 3.

1793.  Smeaton, Edystone L., § 198. The hardening of water-mortar. Ibid., § 212. A proper Water-Cement. Ibid. A very competent Water Lime.

1847.  G. A. Smeaton, Builder’s Man., 34. The Roman is the most valuable of all water-cements.

1868.  Rep. U.S. Commissioner Agric. (1869), 377. The making of hydraulic cements, (water-limes,) mastics &c.

  i.  Prepared with water, as water-size, -starch. Of articles of diet: Prepared with water (instead e.g., of milk); mixed or diluted with water; as water-biscuit, -broo (Sc.), -brose (Sc.), -broth, -cider, -fritters, -kail (Sc.), † -meat, -pap, -pottage, -saps (Sc.; see SOP sb.¹), -tansey. Also WATER-GRUEL, -ICE.

13[?].  S. E. Leg. (MS. Bodl. 779), in Archiv Stud. neu. Spr., LXXXII. 335. A lytil water-potage he ete.

c. 1480.  Henryson, Wolf & Lamb, 140. To leif vpon dry breid and watter caill.

1572.  Satir. Poems Reform., xxxiii. 252. Glaid to get Peis breid and watter Caill.

c. 1610.  Women Saints, 26. But to her self being sicke, she was still rigorous, hardlie admitting a little wine, with her water-meates.

1630.  Dekker, 2nd Pt. Honest Wh., D 1 b. As arrant a whore as euer stiffned tiffany neck-cloathes in water-starch.

a. 1648.  Digby, Closet Opened (1669), 120. Doctor Harvey’s pleasant Water-cider, whereof he used to drink much.

1683.  J. Reid, Scots Gard. (1907), 172. Leaving the dreg behind (the which may go among the pressings for water-cyder).

1747.  Mrs. Glasse, Cookery, ix. 81. Water Fritters. Ibid., 104. A Water Tansey.

1785.  Burns, To J. Smith, xxiv. I’ll sit down o’er my scanty meal, Be’t water-brose, or muslin-kail, Wi chearfu’ face.

1789.  W. Buchan, Dom. Med. (1790), 17. It will then be proper to give it … a little of some food that is easy of digestion, as water-pap, milk-pottage.

1797.  Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3), VII. 739/2. A water-size … prepared by boiling cuttings of parchment or white leather in water.

1816.  Scott, Old Mort., xiv. We got some water-broo and bannocks. Ibid. (1816), Bl. Dwarf, vi. ‘All clear away, with the water-saps and panada,’ returned the unabashed convalescent.

1854.  Surtees, Handley Cr., xxxix. (1901), II. 30. Mr. Jorrocks … had looked in vain for a water-biscuit.

  j.  Pertaining to water as a beverage, or as a (teetotal) article of diet, as † water-day, -diet, -doctrine, † -drink; relating to the use of water in medical treatment, as water-dressing, -patient, strapping; also WATER-CURE.

c. 1000.  Vercelli MS., 112 b, in Napier, O. E. Lexicogr., 67. & sæde eac þæt man mid wæter-drinces sylene mihte him mycele ælmessan ʓedon.

  c. 1200.  Ormin, 14482. Alls iff þu drunnke waterr drinnch Ut off þe firrste fetless.

14[?].  in Aungier, Syon (1840), 393. On water dayes sche schal ordeyne for bonnes or newe brede, water grewel, albreys, [etc.].

1842.  R. T. Claridge, Hydropathy, 22. Directly he commenced this water diet, all his complaints disappeared one by one.

1846.  Lytton, Conf. Water-patient, 17. The regular life which water-patients lead. Ibid., 68. Water-dressings are found the best poultice to an inflamed member.

1854.  Thackeray, Leech’s Pict., Wks. 1900, XIII. 484. George … has taken to the water-doctrine, as all the world knows.

1857.  Dunglison, Med. Lex., Water-dressing, the treatment of wounds and ulcers by the application of water. It generally consists in dipping folds of lint in water, and placing them on the part…. Water strapping or wet strapping means the treatment of ulcers,… &c., with strips of linen or cotton saturated with water.

  k.  Pertaining to water as a physiographical feature or factor, as water-action, † -brim, -depths, -drainage, -edge, -flow, † -ground, † -rim, -scene, -shore, -strand, -view.

  In many of these combinations the first element is equivalent to the genitive water’s, and in early and dial. examples the sense may often be ‘pertaining to the specified “water”’ (i.e., lake, river, etc.: see senses 12 a, b, c).

c. 1220.  Bestiary, 365. Alle þe oðre cumen mide, and … beren him of ðat water grund up to ðe lond al heil and sund.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 4779. Jacob yode walcand be þe nile; He sagh a-pon þe watur reme Caf flettand dunward [with] þe strem.

13[?].  Metr. Hom. (Vernon MS.), in Archiv Stud. neu. Spr., LVII. 289. Þis hermyt sat by a water brimme.

1390.  Gower, Conf., I. 81. Whan the blake wynter nyht … Bederked hath the water Stronde.

1589.  Fleming, Virg. Bucol., v. 15. Watershores and banks (bedasht) and beaten with the flouds.

1792.  A. Young, Trav. France (1794), I. 17. The water-scenes from the town itself … are delicious.

1799.  Robertson, Agric. Perth, 454. Chains of lakes, finely wooded down to the water-edge.

1813.  Southey, Nelson, I. 19. It could not be possible to get the boats to the water edge before the fourteenth.

1826.  Cobbett, Rur. Rides (1885), II. 247. To those who like water-scenes … it is the prettiest spot … in all England.

1830.  Lyell, Princ. Geol., I. 175. The water-drainage of the country.

1854.  ‘Grace Greenwood,’ Haps & Mishaps, 10. Seaforth Hall, an elegant seaside residence … Here I saw a pleasant water-view.

1856.  Kane, Arctic Expl., II. xv. 158. A striated face, whose scratches still indicated the line of water-flow. Ibid., App. II. 309. The coast-ice … had been completely destroyed by thaw and water-action.

1865.  Lond. Rev., 30 Dec., 686/2. As the fisher saw the buried city in the waterdepths.

1901.  Scotsman, 4 March, 10/1. The streams, being small, with a rapid descent from very high land, are subject to much fluctuation of waterflow.

  l.  Consisting of, holding or containing, formed or caused by, water; as † water-breath, -breeze, brook, -chasm, -column, † -draught, -fence, -flow, -foam, -fount, -passage, † -plash, -race, -ring, -run, -slide, -spread, † -sprinkle, -stripe (Sc.), † -vein, -wash, -wear, -world.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 5620. In þis kist þe barn sco did. Quen it spird was wit þe lid,… Sco laid it on þe water fame.

c. 1390.  St. Michael, 629. Alle huy [sc. rain, snow, mist, etc.] comiez of water-breth þat þe sonne drauȝth up.

1529.  Conventual Lease, Yorks., 1190 (P.R.O.). Asmoch grounde … as to make a sufficient dame apon to gedir water and water draught to the said dame.

1531.  Nottingham Rec., III. 370. The water-wessh bytwen Samon Pasture and Trentt.

1535.  Coverdale, Ps. xli[i]. 1. Like as the hert desyreth the water brokes.

1585.  Higins, Junius’ Nomencl., 401/2. Torrens,… a water plash.

1596.  Spenser, F. Q., IV. iii. 25. From the same the fierie sparkles flasht, As fast as water-sprinkles gainst a rocke are dasht.

1601.  Reg. Mag. Sig. Scot., 418/2. Ane watter strype quhilk rynnis at the north syde of the said mure.

1610.  Holland, Camden’s Brit., I. 532. A fairer towne than a man would looke to finde … among such slabbes and water-plashes.

c. 1611.  Chapman, Iliad, XXI. 241. As a man that finds a water vaine.

1634.  Brereton, Trav. (Chetham Soc.), 61. The channel or water-passage leading from Amsterdam to Utrecht.

1707.  Mortimer, Husb. (1721), II. 202. Their Gardens lie all open, where Prospects may be had, and Water-fences can be made.

1771.  Ann. Reg., 90/2. For … filling up upwards of 200 yards of the said water-race.

1813.  Scott, Trierm., III. xxviii. When, lo! a plashing sound he hears, A gladsome signal that he nears Some frolic water-run.

1818.  Byron, Ch. Har., IV. xviii. A fairy city … Rising like water-columns from the sea.

1818.  Keats, Endym., III. 101. Thou hast sent A moon-beam to the deep, deep water-world, To find Endymion.

c. 1820.  S. Rogers, Italy (1839), 77. Those Porches passed, thro’ which the water-breeze Plays.

1852.  Wiggins, Embanking, 94. Such water-fences and drains must … be drawn all around the intake.

1869.  Blackmore, Lorna D., xix. I came to remember the steepness and the slippery nature of the water-slide.

1869.  R. B. Smyth, Gold Fields Victoria, 548. Table showing the Length of Water-races constructed.

1879.  Prescott, Sp. Telephone, 48. A stone dropped into a pond, throws off a succession of circular undulations or water rings.

1884.  Leisure Hour, June, 344/2. One of the finest of the many picturesque water-chasms of Norway.

1887.  E. D. Morgan, in Proc. R. Geogr. Soc., IX. 214. Lake Koko-nor, a magnificent water-spread 10,800 feet above the sea.

1887.  Essex Weekly News, 11 March, 7/1. A small brick archway … which crosses a waterflow known as the Puddle Dyke.

1905.  A. R. Wallace, My Life, I. 250. Perpendicular rocks with no sign of water-wear.

  m.  Situated or built on or beside water, as water-beacon, -brae, -bridge, -castle, -door, -doorway, frontage, † -stable, -stairs, -steps, † -tack. Also WATER-FRONT.

1445.  in Parker, Dom. Archit. (1859), III. 79. At Shene the water-brigge.

1603.  Reg. Mag. Sig. Scot., 499/1. Lie girs of the watter bray.

1608.  Machin, Dumb Knt., I. B 3. Why Orators wiues shortly will bee knowne like images on water staires, euer in one wetherbeaten suite.

1623.  North Riding Rec. (N. S.), II. 10. None ys to repare any water Beakon but such as is subject to the Admirald Court.

1670.  Milton, Hist. Eng., VI. 255. A third excursion they [sc. the Danes] made,… and … return’d … like wild Beasts or rather Sea-monsters to thir Water-stables.

1751.  Labelye, Westm. Bridge, 18. Every Pier, Abutments, and Water-Stairs.

1837.  Ht. Martineau, Soc. Amer., II. 23. The land is divided into long, narrow strips, that each lot may have a water frontage.

1899.  R. Barr, C’tess Tekla, iii. 37. The boatman … propelled the skiff through the water-doorway. Ibid., vi. 68. Bid him instantly to take you in his boat to the water-steps of the Palace.

1903.  Kipling, Five Nations, Explorer, 51. I … Counted leagues of water-frontage through the axe-ripe woods that screen ’em.

1906.  Crockett, White Plumes Navarre, xviii. 133. Cautiously … Madame Granier had peered through the thick grille of the water-door before admitting the Professor.

  n.  Performed, conducted, taking place, on or in the water; as water-excursion, -fight, -life, -motion, -music, -polo, etc.

1607.  T. D. & G. Wilkins, Jests, 11. [He] demanded … wherefore all those Barges (like so many Water-pageants) were caryed vp and downe so gaylie with Flags and Streamers?

1634.  W. Wood, New Eng. Prosp. (1865), 22. Seeing the Beares take water, an Indian will leape after him, where they goe to water cuffs for bloody noses.

1670.  Milton, Hist. Eng., II. 35. In such a various, and floating water-fight as was to be expected.

a. 1700.  Evelyn, Diary, 10 Nov. 1644. Refresh’d with water-musiq, aviaries, and other rarities. Ibid., 29 Oct. 1662. I saw the Lord Maior passe in his water triumph to Westminster.

1749.  H. Walpole, Lett. to Mann, 17 May. A concert of water-music.

1801.  Strutt, Sports & Past., III. i. 92. A representation of the water quintain … is given upon the tenth plate.

1817.  Kirby & Sp., Entomol., xxii. II. 295. I shall not now enlarge on all these kinds of water-motion.

1835.  Dickens, Sk. Boz, River. We have been on water excursions out of number.

1865.  W. White, East. Eng., I. 86. About a dozen yachts have already arrived in readiness for the morrow’s ‘water frolic,’ which is a term much used by Norfolkians to signify a regatta.

1886.  Daily News, 20 Dec., 5/6. A small landscape dotted about with figures representing a water-picnic.

1888.  Field, 25 Aug., 277/3. Water Polo Inter-Club Championship.

1894.  H. Drummond, Ascent Man, 106. At one time there was nothing else in the world but water-life.

  o.  Pertaining to transit or transport by water, as water-communication, -highway, -route, -traction.

1785.  J. Phillips, Treat. Inland Nav., p. vi. Inland districts … which had no opportunity … of a water-communication.

1816.  Tuckey, Narr. Exped. R. Zaire, iv. (1818), 159. It [Banza Congo] has no water communication with the Zaire.

1868.  Ruskin, Arrows of Chace (1880), II. 199. The carriage … may … be done by water-traction and sailing vessels.

1886.  Pop. Sci. Monthly, March, 586 (Cass. Suppl.). The water-route is free to all.

1898.  F. I. Antrobus, trans. Pastor’s Hist. Popes, VI. 230, note. The improvement of the water-highway on the Tiber and the Anio.

  p.  Living or occupied on the water; faring by water; as water-guide, -people, -police. Also, found on the water, as water-stray.

1552.  Huloet, Waterguide, conuector.

a. 1676.  Hale, De jure maris, v. in Hargrave, Tracts (1787), 23. His [the water-baillie’s] business was, to look to the king’s rights, as his wrecks, his flotsan, jetsan, water-strays, royal fishes.

c. 1826.  Pollok, in D. Pollok, Life (1843), 300. The Baijus—wandering water-gipsies on the eastern seas.

1848.  Sinks of Lond., 129. Water pads, fellows who rob ships.

1893.  Lady Burton, Life Sir R. F. Burton, II. 60. Hasan Hammad … is now sergeant to the water-police.

1897.  Hinde, Congo Arabs, 157. The Waginia, who are the water-people, and do all the transport on the river.

  q.  Designating fabulous beings that live in, or have rule over, water; as water-deity, -demon, -devil, -elf, -fairy, -fiend, -goblin, -god, -kelpie, -nixie, -spirit, -sprite, -wraith. Also WATER-HORSE, NYMPH.

a. 1625.  Fletcher, Chances, IV. ii. Get me a conjurer, One that can raise a water Devil.

1702.  Addison, Dial. Medals, II. Wks. 1766, III. 105. We see abundance of Water-Deities on other Medals.

1742.  R. Forbes, Jrnl. to Portsmouth (1755), 30. You wou’d hae taen me for a water-wreath, or some gruous ghaist.

1785.  Burns, Addr. Deil, 69. Then water-kelpies haunt the foord, By your direction.

17[?].  Logan, in Ritson, Sc. Songs (1794), I. 155. Thrice did the water-wraith ascend, And gave a doleful groan thro’ Yarrow.

1798.  Coleridge, Anc. Mar., 155. As if it dodged a water-sprite, It plunged and tacked and veered.

1819.  J. R. Drake, Culprit Fay, xv. He banned the water-goblins’ spite.

1819.  Scott, Ivanhoe, xxv. A water-fiend hath possessed the fair Saxon. Ibid. (1825), Betrothed, xxxi. The statue of a water-god bending over his urn.

1859.  Geo. Eliot, Adam Bede, xxii. Water-nixies, and such lovely things without souls.

1869.  Ruskin, Q. of Air, i. § 12. Myriads of other water spirits, of whom Nereus is the chief.

1871.  Tylor, Prim. Cult., xv. II. 191. In Australia, special water-demons infest pools and watering-places.

  † r.  Occas. used to designate freshwater, as opposed to saltwater, objects; as water-fish, -land, -sand. (Cf. sense 12 c.)

c. 1440.  Pallad. on Husb., I. 267. Sum grauel or sum watir lond kest vndir [L. Aliquid etiam terrae dulcis vel arenae subjiciendum est]. Ibid., 438. And feede in hit thy water-fissh & eel [L. anguillas sane piscesque fluviales].

1683.  J. Reid, Scots Gard. (1907), 41. If you are forced to use sea or water-sand.

  25.  Objective: a. with vbl. sbs. and pres. pples., as water-blowing, † -commanding, -drawing, † -fetching, † -flinging, -loving, -raising, † -receiving, -selling, -yielding.

c. 1440.  Promp. Parv., 456/2. Synke, for water receyvynge, exceptorium.

1570.  Dee, Math. Pref., c j. Then, may you, of Ships water drawing, diuersly, in the Sea and in fresh water, haue pleasant consideration.

1660.  [R. Dacres] (title), The Elements of Water-drawing, or a Compendious abstract of all sorts and kinds of Water-Machins.

1660.  Marq. Worcester, in Dircks, Life (1865), 223. That … I may put in practice the greatest gift of invention … (I mean my water-commanding engine).

1670.  Eachard, Cont. Clergy, 16. Bed-making, chamber-sweeping, and water-fetching were doubtless great preservatives against too much vain philosophy.

1695.  D. Turner, Apol. Chyrurg., 130. Every water-flinging Piss-prophet boasts himself a great Doctor.

1824.  Morier, Hajji Baba, ix. With the money I had gained in water-selling, I found myself well off.

1839.  Ure, Dict. Arts, 824. The trompe, or water-blowing engine.

1841.  P. Cunningham, Hints Austral. Emigrants (title-p.), Explanatory Descriptions of the Water-raising Wheels, and Modes of Irrigating Land in Egypt,… &c.

1851.  Mayne Reid, Scalp Hunters, vi. 48. The water-drawing, wood-hewing, pueblos.

1854.  A. Adams, etc., Man. Nat. Hist., 180. Water-loving Beetles (Philhydridæ).

1877.  Huxley, Physiogr., 32. A great drain was thrown upon the water-yielding power of the strata.

  b.  with agent-nouns, as water-drawer, -haunter, † -searcher, -seller, -supplier.

1552.  Huloet, Water sercher, aquilex.

1562.  Turner, Bathes, 16. Smal byrdes … that are of easy digestion. But water-haunters must ye not touche.

1576.  Fleming, trans. Caius’ Dogs, iv. (1880), 29. This kinde of dogge is also called, In latine Aquarius in Englishe a water drawer. And these be of the greater … sort drawing water out of wells and deepe pittes, by a wheele which [etc.].

1867.  Morris, Jason, XVII. 264. A marble step … Well worn by many a water-drawer’s feet.

1884.  Bookseller, 5 March, 262/2. Householders, who have grievances against their local water suppliers.

1907.  Mrs. Fr. Campbell, Shepherd Stars, 70. A water-seller ringing his brass bell.

  c.  in names of machines, implements, or natural agencies, as † water-chafer, -conductor, -cooler, -feeder, † -forcer, -heater, -holder, -regulator.

1457.  Will of Poole (Somerset Ho.). Menne Wat’chafer.

1610.  Holland, Camden’s Brit., I. 475. The Citizens conveighed water out of the river through pipes by an artificiall instrument or water-forcer.

1825.  J. Nicholson, Operat. Mechanic, 332. The water-regulator consists of a large cistern, in which another of less area and capacity is inverted.

1839.  Ure, Dict. Arts, 972. No water-feeder of any magnitude should present itself till the shaft had been sunk 100 fathoms.

1843.  Zoologist, I. 14. A leaden water-conductor at the top of our house.

1853.  Kane, Grinnell Exp., xix. (1856), 142. A rugged little water-feeder, formed by the melting snows, sent down a stream of foam.

1880.  H. C. St. John, Wild Coasts Nipon, 225. The great tanks are more like small natural lakes than artificially constructed water-holders.

1899.  Jesse L. Williams, Stolen Story, etc., 34. He … stepped up to the water-cooler and filled a glass.

  28.  Instrumental: a. with pa. pples., as water-beaten, † -bollen, -cooled, -eaten, filled, -girt, † -gyved, -inwoven, † -loaden, -locked, † -mingled, † -mixed, -rolled, -rounded, -sodden, -tempered, -walled, -whipped. Also WATER-BOUND, -LOGGED, -SOAKED, -WASHED, -WORN, etc.

c. 1440.  Watertemprid [see UNEVENLY adv. 3].

1555.  Watreman, Fardle Facions, I. vi. 103. Euery body layes him downe dronckarde-like to reste his water bolne bealy.

1593.  Nashe, Christs T., P 1. The nectarized Aqua cœlestis of water-mingled blood, sluced from Christs side.

1595.  Shaks., John, II. i. 27. England hedg’d in with the maine, That Water-walled Bulwarke.

1598.  Sylvester, Du Bartas, II. i. IV. Handie-Crafts, 776. A sable, water-loaden Sky.

1602.  Carew, Cornwall, II. 106 b. While thus they can nor liue nor dye, Nor water-gieu’d, escape away.

1605.  Sylvester, Du Bartas, II. iii. II. Law, 589. The pure and plenteous Floud Of his most precious Water-mixèd Bloud.

1672.  Dr. Wild, Let., 6. Wellcome as the Dove to the Water-beaten Ark.

1789.  J. Williams, Min. Kingd., II. 205. The balls and glebes always appear water-rounded.

1800.  Hurdis, Fav. Village, 81. Forlorn and water-lock’d stands the lone mill.

1841.  H. Miller, O. R. Sandst., v. 110. A huge water-rolled boulder of granitic gneiss.

1843.  Thackeray, Irish Sk.-bk., xv. A great, wide,… water-whipped square lies before the … window.

1855.  Motley, Dutch Rep., II. i. (1866), 132. The blood of a world-wide traffic was daily coursing through the thousand arteries of that water-in-woven territory.

1871.  Tennyson, Last Tourn., 253. Quiet as any water-sodden log.

1883.  Fr. M. Peard, Contrad., xvi. The old water-eaten and green stones of beautiful palaces.

1886.  Standard, 4 Jan., 6/5. The Kelso … is waterfilled, in all holds.

1905.  Westm. Gaz., 23 May, 4/2. A 12-h.p. water-cooled Lanchester car.

1905.  J. B. Bury, St. Patrick, vii. 134. The water-girt promontory which is washed on the west by Lake Kilglass.

1911.  Mrs. H. Ward, Case Richard Meynell, I. vi. 120. The narrow strip of land between the pond and the new channel made a little waterlocked kingdom of its own for the cottage.

  b.  with pres. pples., as † water-flowing, † -standing; with vbl. sbs., as water-planing, -rolling, -seasoning, -spinning, -steeping, -wasting.

1593.  Shaks., 3 Hen. VI., IV. viii. 43. My mercie [hath] dry’d their water-flowing teares. Ibid., V. vi. 40. Many an old mans sighe, and many a Widdowes, And many an Orphans water-standing-eye.

1595.  Locrine, IV. iii. 28. And from the Lee with water-flowing pipes The moisture is deriu’d into this arch.

1751.  Bankton, Inst. Law Scot., I. 681. If, by the water-wasting, the ground is worn away, where the dam was formerly.

1754.  Dict. Arts & Sci., II. s.v. Japanning, Rub the work over with a wet rag till it is rendered as smooth as possible; this work is called water-planing.

1765.  Complete Farmer, s.v. Walk, In order to make them more firm, it will be necessary to give them three or four water-rollings, that is, they should be rolled when it rains very fast; this will cause the gravel to bind.

1823.  P. Nicholson, Pract. Builder, 263. Amongst wheelwrights, the water-seasoning [of timber] is of special regard.

1825.  J. Nicholson, Operat. Mechanic, 386. Water-spinning differs both from the mule and jenny spinning. Ibid., 401. The … process of dew-retting or water-steeping.

  27.  Locative, with agent-nouns and vbl. sbs., as water-diver, -farer, † -skirmisher; water-building, -dwelling, -faring, hunting. Also water-growing ppl. adj.

1570.  Drant, Serm., F v b. The Italians be most wittie, the Spanyardes best water skirmigers.

1625.  Purchas, Pilgrims, II. Table s.v., Cunning Water-diuers.

1674.  Petty, Disc. Dupl. Proportion, 117. Water-Divers who the lower they go, do find their stock of Air more and more to shrink.

1756–7.  trans. Keysler’s Trav. (1760), I. 86. Three leagues from Munich lies … Starenberg, where the court sometimes takes the particular diversion of water-hunting.

1793.  Smeaton, Edystone L., § 185, note. Mortar for water building.

1864.  J. C. Atkinson, Stanton Grange, 160. Their haunts are always among water-growing weeds of some sort.

1865.  Lubbock, Preh. Times, 122. The curious habit of water-dwelling.

1889.  H. M. Doughty, Friesland Meres, 277. The waterfarers on this much-frequented river.

1913.  E. H. Barker, Wayfaring in France, Auvergne to Bay of Biscay, 254. I decided on a little water-faring up the stream.

  28.  Similative, as water-grey, -green, -white adjs. (and sbs.); † water-weak adj.

1612.  J. Davies (Heref.), Muse’s Sacrif. (Grosart), 10/1. If lustie now, forth-with [I] am water-weake.

1877.  Raymond, Statist. Mines & Mining, 22. Illuminating-oil … of water-white and odorless qualities.

1893.  Daily News, 16 June, 6/1. A coat of water-green satin.

1893.  Saltus, Madam Sapphira, xii. 146. A sky of dead rose and water-green.

1900.  Mary E. Coleridge, Non Sequitur, 33. The mournful water-gray eyes.

  29.  Special comb.: water authority, a municipal body administering a system of water supply; water-ballast, cisterns filled with water, placed in the hold of a vessel to serve as ballast; water-baptism, baptism with water, in contradistinction to baptism with the Holy Spirit; water-bar, (a) in Road-making, a ridge on a road, intended to prevent the accumulation of surface water; (b) a tubular bar of a fire-grate, to contain water, communicating with a system of hot-water pipes for warming a building; in quot. attrib.; water-barometer, a barometer in which the pressure of the atmosphere is measured by the height of a column of water, not of mercury as in the usual form of the instrument; † water-bedrip, a BEDRIP at which the reapers were supplied with no other drink than water at meals; water-bow poet. (a) a rainbow; (b) a jet of water issuing so as to form an arch; water-boy, (a) a boy employed at the riverside; † (b) the constellation Aquarius; (c) pl. rain-clouds (vulgar); † water-breach, (a) app. used for water-bank (? some error); (b) an irruption of water; water-breaker¹ (see quot. 1823); water-breaker², a key or cask for holding water (see BREAKER²); water-breather, any animal capable of breathing in water (by means of gills); so water-breathing ppl. a.; water-bridge, a fire-bridge that also forms part of the water-space of a boiler, = WATER-TABLE 4 (Knight, Dict. Mech., 1875); † water-camlet (see CAMLET sb. b); water-candlestick (? obs.), a vertical tube filled with water, to hold a floating piece of wax candle; water-cell, (a) each of the cells in the walls of the stomach of the camel, in which water is stored; (b) an interstice in ice, in which water is occluded; water-chute = WATER-SHOOT 4; † water-claw = DEW-CLAW 1; † water-cloth, ? a dish-cloth; water-company, a commercial association for the purpose of supplying water (conducted through pipes) to the inhabitants of a town or district; † water-corn Sc., ‘the grain paid by farmers for upholding the dams and races of mills’ (Jam.); † water-court = court of the watercourse (see WATERCOURSE 1 c); water-deck Mil., a piece of painted canvas to cover the saddle, bridle and girths of a cavalry horse; † water-dial, a clepsydra; water-diviner = WATER-FINDER; † water-dock = WET-DOCK; water-dust, water in the form of extremely fine particles, as in clouds and spray [? suggested by G. wasserdunst]; † water-egg, an infecund egg (cf. wind-egg); water-engineering, the construction of reservoirs, embankments, aqueducts, and the like; water-eynd dial. [ANDE sb.], see quot. 1884; † water-fare, a ferry; water-farm, a place where pisciculture is carried on; so water-farming, (a) pisciculture; (b) cultivation of plants growing in water; water-flint dial. (see quot. 1868); water-foot Sc., the mouth of a stream; ‘used also as the name of a village or town at the mouth of a river’ (Jam.); water-frame, Arkwright’s spinning-machine, which was worked by water-power; † water-free a., secure from damage by water; water-funk colloq., a person who is afraid to go in the water; water-gap (see GAP sb.¹ 5 b); water-garden, (a) a garden for aquatic plants, an aquarium; (b) see quot. 1902; † water-gavel (see quot. 1706); water-gilder, one who practises water-gilding; water-gilding, the process of gilding metal surfaces by applying liquid amalgam, the mercury being afterwards removed by evaporation; similarly water-gilt a.; water-globe = WATER-BALL¹; † water-glue, a name for isinglass, ? as being waterproof; water-gold, the liquid amalgam used in water-gilding; also (poet. nonce-use) applied to the ‘liquid’ golden radiance of morning sunshine; water-guard, (a) a body of men employed by the Custom House to watch ships in order to prevent smuggling; (b) U.S. (see quot. 1868); † water-gun, a gun in which the projectile is propelled by pressure of water; water-haul U.S., ‘a haul of the net which catches no fish; fig. fruitless effort’ (Webster, 1911); water-heck, -hedge dial., the barred frame hung across a stream at a shallow part to prevent the passage of cattle along the shallow; water-ickle dial., a stalactite; water-inch (see quot.); water-jack, (a) Sc. a roasting-jack turned by a current of water; (b) dial. a waterman; water-jacket, a casing containing water, placed about something to prevent its becoming unduly heated or chilled; also attrib.; hence water-jacketed ppl. a., water-jacketing; water-jet, a stream of water discharged from a small orifice; a fountain; also attrib. water-jet propeller (see quot. 1843); water-jump, a place where a horse is required to leap a stream or ditch; † water-keeping Sc., the guarding of a tract of water against poachers; † water-kin, -kind, the nature of water; water-laid a., (a) Naut. of a rope (see quot. 1857); (b) Geol. of strata, deposited by water; † water-language, the rough language of watermen (cf. water-wit); † water-leasow, a water-meadow; water-leave, permission to navigate a watercourse belonging to another (cf. WAY-LEAVE); † water-lot U.S., a lot of ground covered with water, but capable of being filled in and converted into building land; water-lungs pl., the branches of the cloaca of holothurians, by some supposed to have respiratory functions; † water-manikin, some kind of sailing-boat; water-mead = WATER-MEADOW; water-monarch nonce-wd., a designation applied (a) to Neptune; (b) to a great fish; water-monger, † (a) a contemptuous designation for a water-caster; (b) a vendor of water; † water-nail, ? a nail that will bear exposure to water without rusting; water-organ, the hydraulicon or hydraulic organ (HYDRAULIC A. 2); water-oven, an oven surrounded by a chamber filled with hot water or steam; water-party, a pleasure-party making an excursion on the water; † water-piece, ? a piece of leather damaged by water in the process of manufacture; water-pillow (cf. water-bed); water-pistol, a weapon constructed to discharge a sudden jet of water or corrosive liquid; water-plate, a receptacle for hot water to be placed under a dinner-plate in order to keep the food warm; water-pocket, (a) a compartment in a steam-boiler containing a portion of the water; (b) a natural cavity in which water falls or collects; † water-poet, the title adopted by the writer John Taylor, who was a waterman on the Thames; hence gen. a writer of doggerel verse; † water-poise, a hydrometer; water-pore Bot. and Zool., a pore through which water is discharged; † water-pourer, the constellation Aquarius; water-power, the power of moving or falling water employed to drive machinery; concr. a fall or flow of water that can be thus utilized; water-press, a hydrostatic press; water-pressure, hydraulic pressure, so water-pressure engine (see quot. 1829); water-privilege U.S. (a) ‘the right to use water, esp. the right to use running water to turn machinery’; (b) ‘a stream or body of water capable of being utilized in driving machinery’ (Cent. Dict.); † water-rack (see quot. 1679); water-ram = RAM sb.¹ 5 a; water-rate, a rate or tax levied by a municipality or a water-company for the supply of water; water-rent = prec.; † water-rimer, the ‘water-poet’ Taylor; † water-room, space to move about in the water; water-sail, a small sail sometimes set under a lower studding-sail and reaching nearly to the water; water-sapphire, a variety of iolite; water-screw, a water-elevator on the principle of the Archimedean screw; also attrib. in water-screw-pump; water-shaft, (a) Coal Mining, etc., a shaft sunk to receive the water from an adjoining (coal-)shaft; (b) Salt-making (see quot.); † water-shake, a seismic disturbance of the water; water-shaken a., (of land) saturated with water; † water shard, a deepened channel made by banking up the sides of a stream; water-shear, -shier Sc., a water-parting; † water-shedder Astr. = sense 14; water-sill (see quot.); water-sink, (a) = SINK sb.¹ 1 c; (b) a swallow-hole or pot-hole; water-sky (see quot. 1823); water-slang, the slang of rowing-men; water-smoke = water-eynd; water-sneak slang (see quot. 1812); water-space, that part of a steam-boiler that lies below the steam-space, and holds the water to be evaporated; † water-spelling, hydromancy; water-spinel, a colorless variety of spinel; water-splash, a shallow stream or ford crossing a road; † water-sponge Sc., an ordinary sponge for washing; water-stead dial., the bed or course of a stream; a convenient spot on the bank of a stream where cattle can go to drink (Eng. Dial. Dict.); water-stock, shares in a water-company; water-stoma (pl. -stomata) = water-pore (Bot.); † water-stop = STOP sb.² 8 a; water-streak = WATER-LINE 2; water-system, (a) an assemblage of connected rivers and streams; a main stream and its tributaries, considered as a unity; (b) = water-vascular system; † water-tabby = TABBY sb. 1; water-tathe v. (see TATHE v. 1); water-telescope, an instrument for observing objects under water; water-thermometer, a thermometer filled with water instead of mercury, devised by Dalton for ascertaining the precise degree of temperature at which water attains its maximum density; water-thief poet., a pirate; water-tower, (a) a tower serving as a reservoir to deliver water at a required head; (b) a long iron tube, carried vertically on a wheeled frame, for discharging water to extinguish fires in the upper stories of buildings; water-treader, † (a) poet. a ship; (b) one who treads water (TREAD v. 7); water-tube, one of a set of tubular organs that open upon the exterior of certain invertebrates and are supposed to have an excretory function; water-tube boilor, a form of marine boiler in which the water circulates through tubes exposed to the gases of combustion; † water-twig = WATER-SHOOT 1; water-twist, cotton yarn spun on a water-frame; water-vapo(u)r, the invisible aqueous vapor present in the atmosphere; water-vascular a. Zool., pertaining to water-vessels (see next); water-vessel Zool., one of a system of vessels in which water circulates, in certain Invertebrata; water-wag, a kind of small boat used at Dublin; water-wagon, (a) U.S. = WATER-CART (Cent. Dict., Suppl.); also slang (see quot. 1904); (b) a kind of cumulus (see quots.); † water-wan [WANE sb.¹], lack of water; † water-want a, nonce-wd., that can endure privation of water; water-watcher, a water-bailiff; water-wet, moisture of herbage due to saturation by rain; water-wit, the rough wit of watermen; water-woman, a woman who acts as a waterman; water-wood, timber that grows near water; water-worship, religious adoration paid to rivers or other bodies of water; so water-worshipper; † water-wrack, refuse left by a destructive flood.

1878.  D. Kemp, Man. Yacht Sailing, 377. *Water Ballast, water carried in tanks or breakers as ballast.

1885.  J. Runciman, Skippers & Shellbacks, 238. Bitterly repented having come out with nothing but his water-ballast.

1901.  Scotsman, 14 March, 6/8. The boat … has a water ballast tank.

1673.  Bunyan (title), Differences in Judgment about *Water-Baptism, No Bar to Communion.

a. 1716.  Blackall, Wks. (1723), I. 212. That thus, and no otherwise the Apostles … did admit into the Christian Church all that were receiv’d thereinto, i. e. by the Water-Baptism, is evident.

a. 1879.  E. Backhouse, Ch. Hist., xi. (1885), 130. There were other sects at the same period who rejected both water-baptism and the Eucharist.

1868.  Rep. U.S. Commissioner Agric. (1869), 360. On such road provide low *water bars across the road at intervals of thirty to forty feet. Ibid., 362. Water Bars. The purpose of the bar is to cast the surface water from the road to the side or sides before it has accumulated in such amount as to cut the ruts into gullies.

1884.  Health Exhib. Catal., 124/2. Weeks’s Tubular Waterbar Open Fire Grate.

1773.  W. Emerson, Princ. Mech. (ed. 3), 243. AF a *water barometer.

1866.  A. Steinmetz, Weathercasts, 143–4. The water barometer at the Royal Society’s rooms gave more than 13 inches (13·386) rise and fall for every inch of the mercurial column.

c. 1360.  in Mélanges Charles Bémont (1913), 83. Nullum potum habebit eo die nisi aquam, et idcirco dicitur *waterbedrip.

1827.  G. Darley, Sylvia, 16. With their varied colours blending Hues to shame the *water-bow.

1855.  Browning, Cleon, 252. They praise a fountain in my garden here Wherein a Naiad sends the water-bow Thin from her tube.

1640.  J. Gower, Ovid’s Festiv., I. 19. Sol leaving Capricorn, His race-horse to the *Water-boy doth turn.

1722.  Applebee’s Weekly Jrnl., 22 Sept., 2471/1. Mr. Lear landed at King’s-Arms Stairs, and put on the Water Boy’s Cap, the better to disguise himself.

1895.  Westm. Gaz., 7 Sept., 2/1. There were some waterboys out, an’ we wanted to get down afore there were any downfall.

1398.  Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVII. cxxvi. (1495), 686. And the places wherin suche Papirio Russhes growe is as marreys and moores by meedes and *water breches [L. aquarum ripis].

1669.  Holder, Elem. Speech, 5. Bells serve to proclaim a scare-fire, and (in some places) Water-breaches.

1823.  P. Nicholson, Pract. Builder, 302. *Water-breakers,… being the extremities of the piers which meet and divide the water in its course.

1900.  Westm. Gaz., 27 Dec., 5/2. The commander … had life-belts sent adrift for every man, and six out of the seven were successful in being caught, but the seventh man secured himself to a water-breaker.

1851.  Woodward, Mollusca, I. (1880), 25. Stale water is so inimical to the *water-breathers, that [etc.].

1883.  Fisheries Exhib. Catal. (ed. 4), 99. All crustacea are water breathers.

1861.  P. P. Carpenter, in Rep. Smithsonian Inst., 1860, 233. The … *Water-breathing Prosobranchs.

1592[?].  Greene’s Vision, Descr. Sir Geff. Chawcer. A Sleeuelesse Iacket large and wide … Of *water Chamlet did he weare.

1823.  J. Badcock, Dom. Amusem., 203. The pillar … is made hollow, for the purpose of receiving a *water candlestick of an inch diameter.

1859.  Todd’s Cycl. Anat., V. 507/1. The beautiful provision of *water-cells in the walls of the paunch or first cavity of the stomach [of a camel].

1860.  Tyndall, Glac., I. xix. 136. Reduced … to a mere skeleton of ice, with water-cells between its walls.

1899.  Westm. Gaz., 8 May, 7/2. The lake has been enlarged, and a switchback railway and a *water chute promise rounds of delight.

1901.  Scotsman, 8 March, 6/7. A waterchute is rapidly rising into form in the river Kelvin.

1611.  Cotgr., Controngle, the Deaw-claw, or *water-claw of dogs.

1411.  Nottingham Rec., II. 86. j. *watre-cloth.

1813.  Examiner, 24 May, 325/2. The street being broken up by a *Water Company.

1877.  Huxley, Physiogr., 28. An independent source of water was supplied by the great water-companies.

1600.  Reg. Mag. Sig. Scot., 354/2. Duas nonas partes molendini … cum multuris, sequelis, lie knaifschippis, lie *watter coirnes, &c.

1814.  Mill of Inveramsay, 3 (Jam.). 1 boll of water-corn, being small corn, yearly, for each of the said three ploughs, for manufacturing and upholding the dams and water-gangs.

1482.  in Charters etc. Edin. (1871), 169. All vthir custumys and priuilegis … with thare *watir courtis attaichiamentis vnlawes and dewiteis.

1591.  in R. P. Cruden, Hist. Gravesend (1842), 203. Paid … for wine given to my Lords’ men when the Water Court was kept 0 0 8.

1844.  Queen’s Regul. Army, 74. The supply of Corn Sacks, and *Water Decks to the Cavalry.

1875.  J. Grant, One of ‘Six Hundred,’ xxii. 169. I also wish the corps to be supplied with water-decks.

1653.  Van Etten’s Math. Recreat., 170. Vitruvius writes of another manner of *water-Dyal more difficult.

1758.  E. Stone, Bion’s Math. Instrum., Suppl. 309. The Instruments for measuring Time, are Sun-Dials, Water-Dials, Sand-Dials [etc.].

1896.  Weekly Times, 24 Jan., 72/2. Lately two *‘water-diviners’ … visited the well, and both predicted that water would be found at certain indicated spots.

1902.  Cornish, Naturalist Thames, 59. At the Agricultural Show, the water-divider sits installed.

a. 1700.  Evelyn, Diary, 19 July 1661. We tried our Diving Bell or engine in the *water-dock at Deptford.

1873.  Tyndall, Forms of Water, 4. When the vapour mingles with the cold air … it ceases to be vapour. Every bit of steam shrinks, when chilled, to a much more minute particle of water. The liquid particles thus produced form a kind of *water-dust of exceeding fineness, which floats in the air, and is called a cloud.

1884.  C. G. W. Lock, Workshop Receipts, Ser. III. 257/2. Small pieces … are very well hardened in water-dust finely distributed by means of a stream of air or steam.

1577.  B. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb., IV. 169. Theodorus called them *water Egges [L. urina ova], whereof there neuer commeth any thing.

1908.  W. M. Ramsay, Luke the Physician, v. 191. Irrigation has never ceased and is still practised in certain districts, so that the essential principles of *water-engineering have not been wholly forgotten.

1883.  G. C. Davies, Norfolk Broads, xxxv. 266. The *‘water-eynd’ or sea-smoke,… covers the marsh with a dense watery vapour.

1884.  Chamb. Jrnl., 3 May, 275/2. Another peculiar and uncomfortable phenomenon of the marshes is the water-eynd or sea-smoke, which, rolling up from the ocean, covers the whole landscape with a dense watery vapour.

1610.  Holland, Camden’s Brit., I. 534. Sometimes there was a Ferry or *Water-fare here.

1868.  Peard, Water-farm., ii. 12. Though many of our *water-farms have to be created, a large number require only to be improved. Ibid. (title), Practical *Water-farming.

1889.  Harper’s Mag., May, 859/1. A few miles away, the native lotus grows luxuriantly, a relic, it is believed, of Indian water-farming.

1868.  Thurnam, in Archæologia, XLII. 208. The third flat-stone is a quartzose boulder of the kind known as *‘water flints’ in this part of Somersetshire.

1786.  Burns, Holy Fair, xvi. Peebles, frae the *water-fit, Ascends the holy rostrum.

1825.  J. Nicholson, Operat. Mechanic, 387. In the *water-frame the spindles are moved by an upright pulley.

1642.  Fuller, Holy & Prof. St., III. IV. 159. ’Tis a tale what Josephus writes of the two pillars set up by the sonnes of Seth in Syria, the one of brick, fire-proof; the other of stone, *water-free.

1899.  Kipling, Stalky, iii. 89. You spoke to Beetle yourself, didn’t you? Something about not bathing, and being a *water-funk?

1835.  R. M. Bird, Hawks, i. (1856), 4. The highway to the neighbouring *water-gap … ran through the estate.

1883.  Science, I. 325/2. Transverse valleys or water-gaps are never formed by the persevering action of an antecedent or pre-existing river on a slowly rising mountain fold or fault.

1891.  Hardwicke’s Sci.-Gossip, XXVII. 19. Fresh-Water Aquaria, [Reviewed] … A well-written description of these domestic *water-gardens and vivaria.

1902.  Cornish, Naturalist Thames, 176. A recent addition to the country house is the ‘water garden,’ in which a running brook is the centre and motif of the subsidiary ornaments of flowers, ferns, trees, shrubs, and mosses.

1915.  Edin. Rev., July, 111. The Dutch gardens, like those of Spain, were themselves water-gardens.

1231.  in Blount, Law Dict. (1691), s.v., Redditum … quem homines eorundem Huberti & Margariæ de Manerio suo de Elmour nobis reddere solebant singulis annis per manum Balivi nostri de Menstre-Worth, nomine *Watergavel.

1706.  Phillips (ed. Kersey), Water-Gavel, a Rent paid in old Times for fishing in, or other Benefit received from some River, or Water.

1799.  G. Smith, Laboratory, I. 72. The amalgam of gold with mercury … is used principally by the workmen, in gilding in water-gold, termed *water-gilders.

1897.  Allbutt’s Syst. Med., II. 931. Until lately water-gilders made use of mercury for depositing gold on metallic surfaces.

1783.  Trans. Soc. Arts, I. 320. An Apparatus to prevent the ill effects of Mercury in *Water Gilding.

c. 1820.  Philos. Recreat., 151. Water-gilding upon Silver.

1855.  G. Gore, Pract. Chem., 72. The following solutions have been used for gilding by the simple immersion, or ‘water-gilding’ process.

1883.  Mollett, Dict. Art & Archæol., 343. Water-gilding, gilding with a thin coat of amalgam.

1898.  Westm. Gaz., 28 Oct., 4/2. A Processional cross…. The materials employed are silver, *water-gilt, carbuncles, green onyx, and enamel.

1897.  A. Hartshorne, Old Engl. Glasses, 60. The mediaeval ourinals—alike the retorts of the alchemist and the *water-globes for the poor Flemish flax-thread spinners … and the lace-makers weaving the subtle webs … of Brussels, Mechlin, or Valenciennes.

1590.  Sir J. Smythe, Disc. Conc. Weapons, 19 b. A kinde of *waterglewe to resist wet and moysture.

1678.  Evelyn, Pomona (ed. 3), 407. As you augment the Proportion of Ising-glass or Water-glew, so it will become more limpid and clear.

1725.  Bradley’s Family Dict., s.v. Glue, The Fish which is made use of to make Water-glue is very large.

1686.  Lond. Gaz., No. 2114/4. Lost…, a large black Boar Skin, lined with new Canvas, with four brass Claws gilt, with *Water-gold.

1839–41.  Lane, Arab. Nts., III. 220. I command thee to build for me, during this night, a lofty palace, and to decorate it with water-gold.

1855.  Browning, Old Pict. Florence, i. Where, white and wide And washed by the morning’s water-gold, Florence lay out on the mountain side.

1646.  Jrnls. Ho. Comm., V. 22/2. [A Lords’ ordinance] concerning the *Water Guards.

1812.  J. Smyth, Pract. Customs, 1. On the arrival of a Vessel from foreign parts, within the limits of a British Port, it is the duty of the Tide-surveyor, or the Officer who superintends the Water-guard, to proceed on board.

1828.  Blackw. Mag., XXIV. 552. A powerful preventive water-guard was placed here.

1868.  B. J. Lossing, Hudson, 351. The ‘water-guard’ was an aquatic corps, in the pay of the revolutionary government.

1646.  Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., II. v. 89. There are wayes to discharge a bullet … without any powder at all, as is done by *water and windegunnes.

1871.  Congressional Globe, 17 Feb., 1356/1. It occurred to me … [that] the gentleman from California had made what fishermen call a *‘waterhaul.’ [Laughter.] It surely must not have been what he expected.

1882.  Critic (Washington) 23 Feb. (Thornton). Ostensibly I went to testify as an expert in the Star-route cases, but I did not testify. You know that was another water-haul.

1639–40.  Q. Sess. Rec. (N. Riding Rec. Soc.), IV. 161. Indenture of Conveyance … Together with all and singular wayes, *water-hedges, trees, ditches, fences, etc.

1802.  R. Warner, Tour Northern Counties, I. 161. Those pendant spiral masses called *water-icles or stalactites.

1824.  Carr, Cravin Gloss., Water-icles, stalactites.

1855.  Ogilvie, Suppl., *Waler-inch, the quantity of water flowing in one minute through a circular opening one inch in diameter, whose centre is one and one twelfth inches below a constant surface.

1869.  Eng. Mech., 17 Dec., 324/2. In Scotland … they [sc. turbines] are employed for driving what are called *water-jacks for roasting meat.

1886.  R. C. Leslie, Sea-painter’s Log, i. 26. Becoming first the privileged helper of some waterjack.

1869.  Tanner, Clin. Med. (ed. 2), 62. The vessel is surrounded with a *water-jacket, so as to prevent the chloroform getting too cold to afford the requisite amount of vapour to the air passing over it.

1877.  Raymond, Statist. Mines & Mining, 181. The water-jacket furnace … was built with a view to avoid these costly repairs, but has proved an economical failure thus far.

1898.  Kipling, Fleet in Being, ii. 19. Three Maxims adorned the low nettings. Their water-jackets were filled up from an innocent tin-pot before the game began. It looked like slaking the thirst of devils.

1898.  Allbutt’s Syst. Med., V. 453. The whole [coagulometer] is surrounded by a water-jacket.

1877.  Raymond, Statist. Mines & Mining, 3. The roasting is effected in a peculiar *water-jacketed furnace or kiln, with a removable bottom.

1907.  Motor Boat, 19 Sept., 191/2. This is a frequent trouble with paraffin motors,… The cure is to fit a snifter valve to each cylinder to allow a water drip; this, combined with efficient *water-jacketing, should do away with the trouble.

1832.  G. Downes, Lett. Cont. Countries, I. 298. The Temple of Apollo, as another chamber is designated, contains a *water-jet.

1843.  Artizan, I. 220/1. Water-jet Propellers. A curious mode of propelling steam ships has been invented by Mr. Ruthven, who proposes to give a better direction to the propelling power by forcing jets of water through nozzles placed below the water-line.

1894.  W. H. White, Nav. Archit. (ed. 3), 585. The Water-jet Propeller.

1875.  S. Sidney, Bk. Horse, xx. 431. A big *water-jump.

1883.  Mrs. E. Kennard, Right Sort, xx. Take a good firm hold of his head, and set King Olaf just as fast as you please at the water-jump. He’ll clear it by yards.

1420.  in Reg. Mag. Sig. Scot., 1430, 30/1. The forsaid lord has grantit to … Michel the office of *watter keping and the office of chamerlanry of Ananderdale. Ibid. (1423), 30/2.

c. 1200.  Ormin, Ded., 193. Forr þatt he wollde uss *waterrkinn Till ure fulluhht hallȝhenn. Ibid., 18087. Forr Latin boc seȝȝþ þatt Ennon Bitacneþþ *waterrkinde.

1857.  C. Richardson, Instruct. Swimming, 51. The cord should be well twisted, or what sailors call *‘waterlaid.’

1888.  E. Clodd, Story Creation, iv. 29. The study of the erupted, fire-fused, and water-laid rocks.

1895.  Nation (N. Y.), 19 Dec., 451/1. The association of basic igneous rocks with the water-laid gravels.

1721.  Amherst, Terræ Filius, No. 1, 2. The famous saturnalian feasts among the Romans, at which every scullion … had liberty to tell his master his own… ’Twas all *water-language at these times and no exceptions were to be taken.

1858.  Act 21 & 22 Vict., c. 44 § 19. As also all Wayleaves or *Waterleaves, Canals, [etc.].

c. 1440.  Promp. Parv., 518/1. *Water lesu, aquagium.

1777.  Maryland Jrnl., 4 Nov. (Thornton). A *Water Lot of Ground, on Fell’s Point.

1857.  [John Williamson Palmer], in Putnam’s Monthly Mag., Feb., 170/2. He had become a merchant of note, a man of water-lots and steamboats, and shares in desirable sites at the head of navigation.

1877.  Revised Statutes Ontario, I. 261, marg. Sales and appropriations of water lots declared to be legal.

1877.  Encycl. Brit., VII. 639/2. Two, or more rarely four or five, branched processes of the cloaca, the respiratory trees or *water-lungs, are ordinarily present.

1884.  F. J. Bell, in Proc. Zool. Soc., 254. The so-called water-lungs extend forwards to the anterior end of the body.

1794.  Stedman, Surinam (1813), II. 403. Sail boats called *water-manakins.

1840.  T. A. Trollope, Summer in Brittany, I. 381. A pretty walk along the valley, which is occupied by a succession of *water-meads.

1818.  Keats, Endym., III. 917. Meantime a glorious revelry began Before the *Water-Monarch.

1847.  Stoddart, Angler’s Comp., 250. Give me … the rush of some veteran water-monarch.

1623.  Hart, Arraignm. Ur., I. ii. 9. Empirickes, *water-mongers, and peticoat-physitians.

1835.  Weekly Dispatch, 4 Jan., 5/3. Competition was knocked on the head, and the inhabitants compelled to take water on any terms the water-mongers thought proper to dictate.

1845.  Ford, Handbk. Spain, I. 72. While in particular stations water-mongers in wholesale have a shed.

1403.  in Compotus Rolls Obedientiaries St. Swithun’s, Winch. (1892), 425. In xlij bordis ad idem emptis viijs. ixd. In cc *Waturnailes ad idem emptis xijd.

1481–90.  Howard Househ. Bks. (Roxb.), 211. Item, fur dore nayle, and watter nayle, iiij. c. and qrtr. ij. s. ix. d. ob.

1647.  A. Ross, Mystag. Poet., xvi. (1675), 384. One of those musical instruments of old called Hydraula, we may call them *water-organs.

1649.  Ogilby, Virgil, Bucolicks, vii. (1684), 30, note. The Motion of Water maketh Musick, as we see in Water-Organs.

1852.  Seidel, Organ, 13. The invention of the water-organ by … Ctesibius, of Alexandria.

1857.  Miller, Elem. Chem., Org., 6. By exposing it to a temperature of from 212° to 250° in a *water oven or box of sheet copper.

1884.  Health Exhib. Catal., 111/1. Fitted with a patent water-oven, for keeping food hot.

1790.  Mrs. P. L. Powys, Passages fr. Diaries (1899), 248. August 21st. Mrs. Williams’ *water-party.

1798.  W. Windham, Diary (1866), 397. June, 6th.—Water party to Greenwich.

1834.  Disraeli, Lett., in Monypenny, Life (1910), I. 251. I had promised to join a water party in Sir Frank’s yacht.

1840.  Dickens, Sk. Yng. Couples, 29. There was a great water-party made up to go to Twickenham and dine.

1687.  Proclam., 29 April, in Lond. Gaz., No. 2240/2. We have Prohibited, and do hereby Prohibit the Exportation of all Linnen Rags, Glovers Clippings, Parchment Shreds, Calves Pates, and *Waterpieces.

1905.  Daily Chron., 29 Nov., 1/7. A burglar who is said to have carried a *‘water pistol’ and to have thrown or fired some ammonia into the eyes of a householder is under remand at Woolwich.

1747.  Gentl. Mag., XVII. 37/2. In chafing dish, tho’ most of late Prefer the cleanlier *water-plate.

1822.  Lamb, Elia, Distant Corresp. This kind of dish … requires to be served up hot; or sent off in water-plates, that your friend may have it almost as warm as yourself.

1890.  John Wesley Powell, in Century Mag., April, 916/2. We lunch by a *water-pocket that was filled by a storm two months ago.

1891.  Pall Mall Gaz., 12 Jan., 7/1. The boiler consists of a cylindrical upper part … 6 ft. long, and two lower prismatic water pockets also about 6 ft. in length.

1904.  Daily Chron., 19 July, 5/3. [Four persons] were crossing the Argentière Glacier to-day, when a water pocket burst, and the whole party were hurled against the rocks by the rush of water.

1678.  Alsop, Melius Inquir., I. i. 35. Your common Hackney Versifiers, or Water Poets, make one Verse for the Reason, and the other for the Rhime sake.

1660.  R. D’Acres, Elem. Water-drawing, 24. By which better appeared the vanity of the *water poyse.

1667.  Phil. Trans., II. 496. The Sea … was … much more Salt, the further we went; as I tryed by a Water-poise of Glass, with Quicksilver at the one end.

1772.  T. Percival, Ess. (1777), I. 342. D^r Hoffman, by menns of a glass waterpoise divided by lines, examined hydrostatically several different kinds of water.

1884.  Bower & Scott, De Bary’s Phaner., 45. Two varieties of stoma may be distinguished, which may briefly be termed air pores (or stomata), and *water-pores.

1888.  Rolleston & Jackson, Anim. Life, 575. (Crinoidea) Water-pores, or short tubular canals with a median ciliated dilatation, open into the coelome from the exterior.

1565.  B. Googe, trans. Palingenius’ Zodiac, XI. QQ j. The *Waterpourer, and … the Fishes two that flote.

1573.  W. Bourne, Regim. Sea (1580), 59 b. The names of the Starres … Goates taile. Water pourers leg.

1836.  Mrs. C. P. Traill, Backw. Canada, 89. There is great *water-power, both as regards the river and the fine broad creek.

a. 1861.  T. Winthrop, Life in Open Air (1863), 24. Far down, at some water-power nearest the reach of tide, a boom checks the march of this formidable body.

1871.  C. Marshall, Canadian Dominion, 42. The saw-mills are built where a great water-power can be obtained.

1825.  J. Nicholson, Operat. Mechanic, 292. The hydrostatic or *water-press.

1849.  J. Glynn Constr. Cranes, 47–8. A self-acting crane … has been erected on the quay at Newcastle-on-Tyne…. It is worked by *water pressure.

1829.  Nat. Philos., Hydraulics, iii. (U.K.S.), 29. What is called the *Water-pressure Engine, being, in fact, a steam-engine, worked by water instead of steam.

1839.  Ure, Dict. Arts, 969. The engines at present employed in the drainage of coal-mines are:—1. The water-wheel, and water-pressure engine.

1853.  Glynn, Power Water, 98. The first water-pressure engine used in England was erected … in the year 1765.

1812.  Mass. Spy, 9 Sept., 3/5. To be Sold! A *Water Privilege in Wrentham. Ibid. (1822), 31 July (Thornton). Valuable Mills and Water Privileges.

1849.  Thoreau, Week Concord Riv., Tuesday, 230. Some of the finest water privileges in the country still unimproved on the former stream.

1877.  Raymond, Statist. Mines & Mining, 243. Just below this lode … Armstrong & Co. have located an admirable mill-site and water-privilege.

1879.  F. R. Stockton, Rudder Grange, i. I then went to a well belonging to a cottage near by where we had arranged for water-privileges, and filled two buckets with delicious water.

1679.  J. Goodman, Penil. Pard., I. iv. (1713), 114. We count the *Water-rack a very severe torture, to have that element forced down a man’s throat, till all the vessels of his body are stretched and tympanized.

1806.  trans. Mongolfier, in Nicholson’s Jrnl. Nat. Philos., XIV. 103. The following is the description of a *water-ram.

1829.  Nat. Philos., Hydraulics, ii. (U.K.S.), 20. The Water Ram or Bélier Hydraulique, as it was called by its inventor, M. Montgolfier, of Paris.

1877.  Wood, Nature’s Teach., Usef. Arts, x. 435. The water-ram with its globular valve.

1837.  Dickens, Pickw., xxvii. ‘What d’ye think it [the money] was all for?’… ‘For the shepherd’s *water-rate, Sammy.’ Ibid. (1839), Nickleby, xiv. Having an uncle who collected a water-rate.

1802.  R. Warner, Tour N. Counties, II. 285. Only 110l. is received from the *water-rents of the houses to which the element is conducted.

a. 1637.  B. Jonson, Discov. (1640), 97. Nay, if it were put to the question of the *Water-rimers workes, against Spencers; I doubt not, but they would find more Suffrages.

1653.  Walton, Angler, viii. 162. The Carp, if he have *water room and good feed, will grow to a very great bigness and length.

1675.  H. Teonge, Diary (1825), 36. We have made a sayle for the starne of the ship, called a *water sayle.

1794.  Rigging & Seamanship, I. 127. Sloop’s Water-Sail … It is ocasionally spread under the boom of the main-sail in fair winds.

1883.  Man. Seamanship for Boys, 38. A watersail sets under the spanker-boom end.

1829.  Chapters Phys. Sci., 171. The blue variety of rock crystal, called *water sapphire.

1850.  Ansted, Elem. Geol., Min., etc., § 409. It [Iolite] is also called Cordierite and Water sapphire, the latter name being given by jewellers to a variety from Ceylon, which presents different colours in two directions.

1655.  Marq. Worcester, Cent. Inv., § 55. A double *Water-scrue, the innermost to mount the water, and the outermost for it to descend.

1773.  W. Emerson, Princ. Mech. (ed. 3), 228. Archimedes’s water screw.

1823.  P. Nicholson, Pract. Builder, 409. The Water Screw Pump.

1708.  J. C., Compl. Collier (1845), 2. Water which rises at the Coal-Shaft, may run into this *Water or half Shaft, to be drawn there by Horses or Water Wheels.

1869.  R. B. Smyth, Gold Fields Victoria, 625. Water-shaft, the drainage shaft, usually the deepest shaft in a mine.

1886.  Cheshire Gloss., Water-shaft, salt-making term. A shaft sunk to collect the fresh water near the main shaft.

1577.  Holinshed, Chron., II. 1039/2. On the Saterday after,… [1382], earely in the morning, chaunced an other earthquake, or as some write, a *watershake, beeyng so vehemente, that it made the Shippes in the hauens to beate one againste an other, [etc.].

1581.  Andreson, Serm. at Paules Crosse, 101. That vniuersall Earthquake, and like watershake, whiche draue vs into present feare.

1805.  R. W. Dickson, Pract. Agric., I. 537. On a red greet, and *water-shaken soil.

1810.  J. Bailey, Agric. Durham, 9. A moist soft loam … known by the … epithet of ‘water shaken.’

1470.  Stat. Rolls Irel. 10 Edw. IV., c. 19. Repairerount le dit Gourge … come necessite requiert lessauntz … en la miente del file del auaunt dit ewe xxiiij. pees en laiour appelle le Kynges shard aultrement appelle le *Watersharde. Ibid. Watirshard.

1844.  Zoologist, II. 421. A line running from Loch Spey to Loch Monar, the course of which is regulated by the *water-shears between the east and west coasts.

1847.  Blackw. Mag., LXII. 162. The water-shier between the Spey and the Dee.

1546.  Gassar’s Prognost., c iij b. The cloudy sterre that is in the beginning of y^E *Water sheder of the Waterer [L. apud initium effusionis aquæ Aquarii].

1839.  Ure, Dict. Arts, 748. The overlying *Watersill or sandstone.

1894.  Northumbld. Gloss., Water-sill, a bed of fine-grained sandstone lying immediately below the great limestone in the south-west of Northumberland.

1798.  Hull Advertiser, 13 Oct., 1/2. An excellent kitchen and scullery, in which there is a pipe for water, a *water sink, with other conveniences.

1890.  Nature, 27 Nov., 93. The water which flows out of Malham Tarn and disappears down a ‘water-sink’ to the south of the tarn is the stream which emerges at Malham Cove.

1908.  Reginald Farrer, in Blackw. Mag., July, 93/2. It is in this white pavement that are found all the famous water-sinks that feed the streams far below.

1823.  Scoresby, Jrnl. Whale Fish., 472. *Water-sky, a dark appearance of the atmosphere, near the horizon, indicating clear water below it.

1881.  trans. Nordenskiöld’s Voy. ‘Vega,’ I. x. 518. A blue water-sky was still visible out to sea, indicating that open water was to be found there.

1860.  W. W. Reade, Liberty Hall, I. v. 77. He listened to their semi-nautical oaths,… and their *water-slang with veneration.

1847.  Tennyson, Princess, VII. 198. Spill Their thousand wreaths of dangling *water-smoke.

a. 1903.  ‘H. S. Merriman,’ Last Hope, viii. Through the dazzling white of that which is known on these [Suffolk] coasts as the water-smoke the sky shone a cloudless blue.

1812.  J. H. Vaux, Flash Dict., *Water-sneak, robbing ships or vessels on a navigable river or canal, by getting on board unperceived, generally in the night. The water-sneak is lately made a capital offence.

1849.  J. Glynn Constr. Cranes, 56. The *water-space round the ram being full three-fourths of an inch.

1587.  Golding, De Mornay, xxii. (1592), 333. Varro reporteth … that Numa vsed *Waterspelling, and had communication with Diuels.

1883.  Encycl. Brit., XVI. 386. Chloro-spinel, grass-green with a yellowish white streak…. *Water-spinel colourless; from Ceylon.

1844.  Dickens, Mart. Chuz., xxxvi. Yoho! down the pebbly dip, and through the merry *water-splash, and up at a canter to the level road again.

1886.  Bicycling News, 1 Oct. Last Saturday, two riders on a tandem tricycle attempted to rush through Shepperton ‘water splash.’

1902.  C. G. Harper, Holyhead Road, I. 229. The old road goes over what used to be a water-splash in the deep hollow.

1497.  Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot., I. 377. Item, that samyn day, in Cambuskynneth, for *water spowngis to the King, iij s. iiij d.

1508.  Dunbar, Tua Mariit Wemen, 437. I haif a water spunge for wa, within my wyde clokis, Than wring I it full wylely, and wetis my chekis.

1612.  Sc. Bk. Rates, in Halyburton’s Ledger (1867), 292. Watter spounges for chirurgeans.

1775.  J. Watson, Halifax, 548. *Waterstead, the Bed or Course of a river or brook.

1867.  Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., Water-stead, an old name for the bed of a river.

187[?].  E. Waugh, Tufts of Heather, Hermit Cobbler, iv. He fell … into th’ wayterstid at th’ back o’ th’ house.

1894.  Westm. Gaz., 10 April, 2/3. (letter signed) A Radical Owner of *Water Stock.

1903.  Daily Chron., 24 Nov., 4/3. Water stocks fell on the decision in regard to the New River dividends.

1884.  Bower & Scott, De Bary’s Phaner., 50. Other stomata … which may be called *Water-stomata or -pores.

1585.  *water stop [see STOP sb.² 8 a].

1759.  Sterne, Tr. Shandy, II. i. The great sluice or water-stop, where the English were terribly exposed to the shot … of St. Roch.

1797.  S. James, Voy., 38. The leak was above *water streak.

1833.  Penny Cycl., I. 436/2. North America possesses an extensive *water-system on the Pacific slope.

1859.  H. Kingsley, G. Hamlyn, xix. Having crossed the valley of the Belloury,… I had come on to the water system of another main river.

1704.  Swift, Tale of Tub, ii. 59. What is the Sea, but a Wastcoat of *Water-Tabby?

1877.  Wood, Nature’s Teach., Optics, ii. 292. An instrument … called the *Water-Telescope.

1883.  Fisheries Exhib. Catal., 360. Water Telescope, from Bohuslān.

1799.  J. Dalton, in Mem. Lit. & Phil. Soc. Manch., V. II. 374. For this purpose I took a thermometer tube … and filled it with pure water … From repeated trials agreeing in the result, I find, that the *water thermometer is at the lowest point of the scale it is capable of, that is, water is of the greatest density at 42° ¹/₂ of the mercurial thermometer.

1596.  Shaks., Merch. V., I. iii. 24. There be land rats, and water rats, *water theeues, and land theeues, I meane Pyrats.

1870.  Morris, Earthly Par., III. IV. 304. A Tyrrhenian water-thief.

1887.  Sir R. H. Roberts, In the Shires, iii. 37. In rear of the observatory a large *water-tower raised its head.

1887.  Sci. Amer., 22 Jan., 53/2. The fall of a stand pipe or water tower, at Sheepshead Bay.

1898.  ‘H. S. Merriman,’ Roden’s Corner, vi. 56. To the north of the waterworks … the curious may find to-day a few low buildings clustering round a water-tower.

1916.  A. B. Reeve, Poisoned Pen, iii. 61. Tour engines, two hook-and-ladders, a water-tower, the battalion chief and a deputy are hurrying to that fire.

1615.  Chapman, Odyss., XIV. 477. When the water-treader [ποντοπόρος νηῦς], farre away Had left the Land.

1855.  Gentl. Mag., June, 582. Mr. Buckingham, the once renowned boy water-treader of Flushing.

1888.  Rolleston & Jackson, Anim. Life, 575 (Crinoidea) Ciliated branched *water-tubes depend from the ring and origins of the radial vessels and open into the coelome.

1875.  Knight, Dict. Mech., *Water-tube Boiler.

1894.  Westm. Gaz., 18 Oct., 8/2. The Ardent … is fitted with the Thornycroft water-tube boilers.

1601.  Holland, Pliny, XVII. xiii. I. 515. The shoots and suckers that put out at the root, as also other *water-twigs.

1819.  Encycl. Brit., Suppl. III. 395/1. The yarn produced by this mode of spinning is called *Water Twist.

1839.  Ure, Dict. Arts, 366. Fig. 347 is a diagram of Arkwright’s original water-frame spinning machine, called afterwards the water-twist frame.

1844.  G. Dodd, Textile Manuf., i. 33. The name ‘water-twist’ arose from the circumstance that … Arkwright’s [machine] was worked by a water-wheel.

1878.  Blakely, Dict. Commerc. Inform., Water-twist, a kind of cotton-twist, of which there are common, seconds, and best seconds.

1880.  Geikie, Phys. Geog., ii. 44. By the term *water-vapour, or aqueous-vapour, is meant the invisible steam always present in the air.

1908.  Westm. Gaz., 31 Jan., 2/1. The latest statement by Sir William Huggins on the existence of water-vapour on Mars is that there is no conclusive proof.

1870.  Rolleston, Anim. Life, p. lxxxvi. [In other Mollusca] a multi-ramified *water-vascular system appears to spread itself throughout the body, without becoming directly continuous with the blood-vessels.

1895.  Riverside Nat. Hist. (1888), I. p. xx. In the jelly-fishes the stomach opens into four or more water-vascular canals or passages.

1867.  J. Hogg, Microsc., II. iii. 562. There remains … the ambulacral vessels of the Echinodermata. These are frequently termed *‘water-vessels.’

1894.  T. B. Middleton, in Yachting (Badm. Libr.), II. 146. *‘Water wags’ and ‘Mermaids’ of Dublin Bay.

1894.  Field, 9 June, 838/1. Match for Waterwags, for a cup presented by the Dublin and Wicklow Railway Company.

1815.  T. Forster, Atmos. Phenom., 59. Some of these little cumuli … flying along rapidly between the showers, are … called by the vulgar *water waggons.

1844.  H. Stephens, Bk. Farm, I. 251. The ominous scud is the usunl harbinger of the rain-cloud, and is therefore commonly called ‘messengers,’ ‘carriers’ or ‘water-waggons.’

1904.  (Amer.) Dialect Notes, II. 402. ‘To be on the water wagon,’ to abstain from hard drinks. N.Y.

13[?].  Cursor M., 6389 (Gött.). Þar þai had mekil *watir wan.

1598.  Sylvester, Du Bartas, II. ii. I. Ark, 413. The Camell *water-want [Fr. souffre-soif].

1862.  Ann. Reg., 27. The wilful murder of Edward Atkinson, *water-watcher.

1888.  Barrie, Auld Licht Idylls (1892), 58. ‘Water-watchers,’ as the bailiffs were sometimes called.

1778.  [W. Marshall], Minutes Agric., 32 Nov. 1775. If possible, mix it perfectly full of sap, but perfectly free from *water-wet.

1804.  A. Hunter, Georg. Ess., VI. 229. The clover … should be perfectly free from water-wet.

1767.  S. Paterson, Another Trav., I. 102. That vile ribaldry called *water-wit.

1863.  Hawthorne, Our Old Home, Up Thames, II. 143. The old rough water-wit for which the Thames used to be so celebrated.

1731.  Flying Post, 28 Jan., 2/2. A *Water-Woman was found suddenly dead, and … it was thought she was strangled.

1762.  Goldsm., Ess., Fem. Warriors. The water-women of Plymouth.

1600.  Surflet, Country Farm, VII. xv. 824. The other sort of *water woode is the willow.

1750.  W. Ellis, Mod. Husbandm., II. ii. 139 (E.D.D.). An alder, a withy, a willow or other water-wood hedge.

1871.  Tylor, Prim. Cult., xv. II. 192. Africa displays well the rites of *water-worship. Ibid., xvi. II. 248. Savage *water-worshippers.

1598.  Sylvester, Du Bartas, II. i. Eden, 401. When pale Phlegm, or saffron-colour’d Choler,… print upon our Understanding’s Tables; That, *Water-wracks; this other, flamefull Fables.

1658.  Melrose Regality Rec. (S.H.S.), I. 174. Quhen tymber treis or onie uther fewall or watter wrak cumes doune the river and lands there.

1834.  Pringle, Afr. Sk., ii. 151. The remains of water-wrack … afforded striking proof that at certain seasons this diminutive rill becomes a mighty … flood.

  30.  Prefixed to names of animals to denote species inhabiting the water, as water-animal, -bat, -beast, -beetle, -bird, -butterfly, -coot, -eel, -finch, -frog, -gnat, † -hydra, -insect, -louse, -raven, -reptile, -shrew(-mouse), -shrimp, -snail, -toad. Also water-adder, any aquatic serpent resembling an adder; water-antelope = WATERBUCK; water-ask dial., a newt; water-beetle, a beetle of the group Hydradephaga; water-blackbird, the dipper, Cinclus aquaticus; water-boa, the anaconda; water-boatman, a water-bug of either of the families Notonectidæ or Corixidæ (Corisidæ); water-buffalo = water-cow; waterbug, (a) any heteropterous insect of aquatic habit; (b) U.S. the cockroach, Blatta orientalis; water-bull, a legendary amphibious animal resembling a bull; water-cavy = water-hog; water-chat, a bird of the South American group Fluvicolinæ; water-cow, (a) the common domestic Indian buffalo, Bos bubalus or Bubalus buffelus; (b) a legendary amphibious animal resembling a cow; cf. water-bull; water-crake, † (a) the water-ouzel or dipper, Cinclus aquaticus; (b) the spotted crake, Porzana maruetta; (c) the water-rail, Rallus aquaticus; water-creeper, -cricket, the larva of the stone-fly; water-crow, (a) the dipper, Cinclus aquaticus; (b) the coot, Fulica atra; (c) southern U.S. the snakebird, Plotus anhinga; water-deer, a small Chinese musk-deer, Hydropotes inermis; water-devil, (a) the larva of the great water-beetle, Hydrophilus piceus (Ogilvie, 1850); (b) U.S. ‘the dobson or hellgrammite’ (Cent. Dict.); water-doe, a female waterbuck; water-eagle (see quot.); water-eft = water-newt; water-flea, any of the small crustaceans that hop like fleas; water-hog, the capybara; water-junket, an alleged name for the sandpiper; water-lawyer jocular, a shark; water-leech = LEECH sb.² 1; water-lizard, a newt or other lizard-like animal inhabiting the water; water-mite = water-tick; water-moccasin U.S. (see MOCCASIN 3); water-moth, a caddis-fly; water-newt, an aquatic newt, a triton; water-opossum = YAPOCK; water-ouzel (see OUZEL 2 c); water-ox = water-cow; † water-parrot, some microscopic insect; water-pheasant, (a) the pheasant-tailed jacana, Hydrophasianus chirurgus; (b) the pintail duck; (c) the goosander, Mergus merganser; water-piet (see PIET 1 b); water-pipit, Anthus aquaticus; water-puppy = WATER-DOG 3 b; water-rabbit U.S., the swamp-hare of the Mississippi valley, Lepus aquaticus; water-rattle, -rattler, the diamond rattlesnake, Crotalus adamanteus; water-rattle-snake, an incorrect name for the water-viper; water-salamander (see SALAMANDER 1 b); water-scorpion, an aquatic bug of the family Nepidæ; † water-softling (see quot.); water-thrush, (a) the water-ouzel or dipper; (b) a bird of the American genus Seiurus; water-tick = WATER-SPIDER; water-tiger, a beetle of the genus Dytiscus or family Dytiscidæ; water-viper, any poisonous aquatic snake, esp. Ancistrodon piscivorus; water-weasel [= G. wasserwiesel], an otter; water-wolf [cf. G. wasserwolf], a rapacious aquatic animal; in quots. applied to the pike [cf. L. lupus] and the otter.

1398.  Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVIII. ix. (1495), 759. *Water adders dwelle in brymmes of waters.

14[?].  Nom., in Wr.-Wülcker, 705/37. Hic idrus, a watyrnedyre.

1691.  Ray, Creation, I. (1692), 62. Fishes and other *Water-Animals cannot abide without the use of it [sc. air].

1875.  W. H. Drummond, Large Game S. & S.E. Afr., 367. The *water-antelope (Kobus ellipsiprymnus).

1820.  Marmaiden of Clyde, xviii. in Edin. Mag., VI. 423. The *water-asks, sae cauld and saft, Crawl’d ower the glittie flure.

1892.  Jane Barlow, Irish Idylls, v. 113–4. She’s not the fool, anyway, to be dhrinkin’ out o’ wather-pools thick wid them black wather-asks, that ’ud lep down your throath as soon as look at you.

1681.  Grew, Musæum, I. § iv. i. 54. Barlæus mentions a *Water-Bat, which the Natives of Brasile call Guacucua.

1398.  Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., V. xxxv. (1495), 147. Some *water beestes doon brethe as the dolphyn.

c. 1440.  Promp. Parv., 372/2. Otur, watyr beest, lutricius.

1668.  Charleton, Onomast., 46. Hydrocantharus, the *Water-beetle.

1771.  Phil. Trans., LXI. 316. The dytisci or water-beetles.

1826.  Kirby & Sp., Entomol., IV. xlv. 254. The common water-beetle (Dytiscus marginalis).

c. 1440.  Promp. Parv., 127/1. Doppar, or dydoppar, *watyr byrde, mergulus.

1803.  Leyden, Scenes Infancy, II. xxii. The water-birds … Oft rouse the peasant from his tranquil dream.

1917.  W. Warfield, in Blackw. Mag., Nov., 645/2. Large water-birds rose from the river as we approached, and laboured clumsily off—herons, pelicans, or muscovy ducks.

1678.  Ray, Willughby’s Ornith., II. xv. 235. It is as big, or a little bigger than a *Water-Blackbird, or Crake.

1802.  Shaw, Gen. Zool., III. 345. *Water Boa. Boa Enydris.

1863.  Bates, Nat. Amazons, iii. (1864), 60. The hideous Sucurujù, or water boa (Eunectes Murinus), which sometimes attacks man.

1871.  Kingsley, At Last, xiii. The Huillia, Anaconda, or Water-boa, bears only a few large round spots.

1815.  Kirby & Sp., Entomol., iv. (1818), I. 109. The *water boatman, (Notonecta glauca, L.) an insect related to the Cimicidæ … made me suffer still more severely.

1910.  G. H. Carpenter, in Encycl. Brit., XIII. 261/1. The Notonectidæ, or ‘water boatmen.’… By means of the oar-like hind-legs they swim actively through the water with the ventral surface upwards.

1894.  Outing, XXIV. 438/1. A rude wooden plow … drawn by the clumsy Asiatic or *water buffalo.

1750.  Glandville, in W. Ellis, Mod. Husb., IV. II. 71. Of *Water-bugs.—I have made Observations on Bugs of different Kinds in stagnate Waters.

1778.  J. Carver, Trav. N. Amer., xviii. 493. The Water Bug … has many legs, by means of which it passes over the surface of the water with such incredible swiftness that [etc.].

1816.  Kirby & Sp., Entomol., xxiii. (1818), II. 364. The common water-bug (Gerris lacustris, Latr.), though it never goes under water, will sometimes swim upon the surface.

1868.  Louisa M. Alcott, Little Women, xii. Fred … did his best to upset both [the other boats] by paddling about in a wherry like a disturbed water-bug.

1901.  Lee Bacon, Houseboat on Nile, 38. Why did we want hedgehogs on a dahabéah? Nothing more or less than that they are supposed to eat water-bugs.

1726–31.  Waldron, Descr. Isle of Man (1865), 43. The *water-bull.

1815.  Scott, Lett. to Morritt, 22 Dec. The persuasion of the solitary shepherds who approach its [a lake’s] banks, is, that it is tenanted by a very large amphibious animal called by them a water-bull.

1901.  Rhys, Celtic Folklore, I. iv. 284. The water-bull or tarroo ushtey, as he is called in Manx,… is described as a sort of bull disporting himself about the pools and swamps.

1668.  Charleton, Onomast., 39. Perla … the Dragon-Fly, or Adders-Boult, and *Water-Butterflies.

1681.  Grew, Musæum, I. § vii. i. 157. Water-Butterfly, because they most frequent Rivers and watry places.

1885.  Riverside Nat. Hist. (1888), V. 82. The gigantic *Water Cavy, or Capybara.

1837.  Swainson, Nat. Hist. Birds, II. 5. The *water-chats (Fluvicolinæ), which seem to connect the tyrant shrikes to the flycatching family.

1852.  D. M. Moir, Poet. Wks., II. 155. On the lakelet blue, the water-coot Oar’d forth with her sable young.

1827.  Scott, Jrnl., 23 Nov. A set of his kinsmen,… believing that the fabulous *Water Cow inhabited a small lake near his house, resolved to drag the monster into day.

1895.  Antiquary, July, 217. A water-cow is said to inhabit St. Mary’s Loch near Yarrow.

1678.  Ray, Willughby’s Ornith., II. vii. 149. The Water-Ouzel or *Water-Crake: Merula aquatica.

1802.  Montagu, Ornith. Dict., Ouzel-Water…. Provincial, Water Crake.

1811.  Col. Hawker, Diary (1893), I. 35. I knocked down 15 snipes and 2 water crakes.

1837.  Kirkbride, Northern Angler, 35. The Stone Fly … is bred from an insect, found under large stones in the river, called the water cricket, or *creeper.

c. 1711.  Petiver, Gazophyl., VII. Tab. 70. *Water Cricket,… This is a slow creeping Insect found at the bottom of Ponds amongst the Weeds.

1855.  Kingsley, Glaucus (1878), 207. The most interesting of all the tribes of the Naiads … are the little water-cricket.

1398.  Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., V. xl. (1495), 156. Some fowles haue galles pryuely hydde in a gutte as culuours or douues and *water crowes and swallowes.

1544.  Turner, Avium Præcip., B 3. Morpetenses … cornicem uocant aquaticum [marg. a water craw].

1661.  Lovell, Hist. Anim. & Min., 146. The Water Crow … the skinne of which is used to be worne upon the stomach causing concoction.

1804.  Bewick, Brit. Birds, II. 16. Water Ouzel. Water Crow, Dipper, or Water Piot.

1832.  Proc. Berwick. Nat. Club, IX. 504. Of the Thrush family, the Dipper or Watercrow frequented all the streams.

1877–82.  Cassell’s Nat. Hist., III. 63. The Chinese *Water Deer. Hydropotes inermis.

1850.  R. G. Cumming, Hunter’s Life S. Afr. (1902), 121/2. A troop of beautiful *water does.

1891.  Century Dict., *Water eagle, the fish hawk or osprey. (Rare.)

1895.  Rider Haggard, Heart of World, xxv. (1899), 340. Here and there a human corpse, over which already the water-eagles began to gather.

1447.  Bower, Fordun’s Scotichron., XIV. xxxi. (1759), II. 376. Als sikir for to hald as a *water eeil.

1768.  G. White, Selborne, To Pennant, 27 July. The *water-eft has not, that I can discern, the least appearance of any gills.

a. 1400.  Nominale (Skeat), 793. Freseie et pynceuole, Nytcrowe and *watirfynche.