[f. WATER v. + -ED1.]
† 1. Of the eyes: Filled or running with watery matter or with tears. Obs.
a. 1400. Stockholm Med. MS., i. 8. in Anglia, XVIII. 297. For wattryd eyne & to grety.
1578. H. Wotton, Courtlie Controv., 67. Bending hir watered eyes and woful hart with ioyned hands vnto the heauens, she prayed [etc.].
1593. Deloney, Garland Good Will, F 1 b. Let not offence be found in this, To give my Lord a parting kiss With watr’d eyes.
2. Soaked or steeped in water.
c. 1430. Two Cookery-bks., 26. Take Soundys of watteryd Stokkefysshe, an caste þer-to.
1681. Colvil, Whigs Supplic., II. (1741), 114. Our throats cut, Down which we watered Meal of Oats put.
† b. Of the cheeks: Wet with tears. Obs.
1571. Dk. Norfolk, in 14th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm., App. IV. 574. Prayinge … with an overwhelminge harte and watered cheekes.
1597. Hooker, Eccl. Pol., V. xlii. § 2. [They] could not … but with bleeding harts and with watred cheekes behold a person of so great place and worth constrayned to indure so foule indignities.
c. Of a road: Soaked or sprinkled with water to lay the dust, etc.
1853. Dickens, Bleak Ho., xix. A shop with a sun-blind, and a watered pavement … is a sanctuary.
1896. J. Davidson, Fleet St. Eclogues, Ser. II. 48. The odour stale Of watered streets.
3. Of a garden, land: Kept moist by pouring or sprinkling water.
1535. Coverdale, Jer. xxxi. 12. Their conscience shalbe as a well watred garden. [1611 Bible Ibid., Their soule shall be as a watered garden.]
1552. Huloet, Watered as a field, or gardein, rigatus.… Watred with dew, rosidus.
1654. C. Wase, Gratius’ Cyneget., A 3 b. But the poore Alaband in his water’d yard Plants grounds of hemp.
1826. Sherer, Notes & Refl. Ramble Germany, 180. The plain is wooded as though it were a forest, and yet you know it to be a watered garden.
b. Of a country, locality: Furnished or supplied with rivers or streams of water. Often with adv., as well-, best-watered. Of a road: Having streams of water near-by, convenient for travellers.
1798. Bloomfield, Farmer’s Boy. Spring, 38. Where noble Grafton spreads his rich domains, Round Euston’s water’d vale, and sloping plains.
a. 1859. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., xxiii. V. 95. That well watered garden of olives and mulberry trees which spreads many miles on every side of the great white temple of Milan.
1859. H. Kingsley, G. Hamlyn, xxv. I should say it was the best watered … piece of country yet discovered in New Holland.
1893. Selous, Trav. S. E. Africa, 14. I took the best watered of the roads leading to the Marico river.
1895. Daily News, 22 Oct., 2/1 [Australian Advt.]. Good and watered roads pass through the properties.
c. Of meadow land: Subject to periodical flooding. (Cf. WATER-MEADOW.)
1733. Tull, Horse-Hoeing Husb., xi. 111. Water, when it runs off very soon, is Beneficial, as is seen in water’d Meadows.
1774. Pennsylv. Gaz., 10 Aug., Suppl. 2/2. About 7 acres of watered meadow.
1789. T. Wright, Meth. Watering Meadows (1790), 6. The farmer who occupies fifty acres of this watered land.
1826. Cobbett, Rur. Rides (1830), 398. Here are watered meadows nearest to the river on both sides; then the gardens, the houses, and the cornfields.
1842. J. Aiton, Domest. Econ. (1857), 181. Watered meadow, even to the extent of one acre, is a perfect treasure at the manse.
1884. West. Morn. News, 30 Aug., 1/6. Twenty-four acres of watered meadow.
4. Of wine or strong liquor, milk, etc.: Diluted with water.
1552. Huloet, Watered, or whereunto water is put, aquatus.
1642. Howell, For. Trav. (Arb.), 32. Go to their Diet, the one drinkes Watered Wine, the other Wine watered.
1873. O. W. Holmes, Addr. Opening Fifth Avenue Theatre, 127. Dealers in watered milk.
1905. H. G. Wells, Kipps, I. ii. § 2. A supper of bread and cheese and watered beer awaited him downstairs.
b. fig. Weakened in character or force by alteration or addition. Also watered-down.
1897. F. Harrison, in Daily News, 2 Jan., 3/5. A watered orthodoxy and a timid ecclesiasticism.
1898. Westm. Gaz., 27 July, 8/1. The religious and the profane alike are … anxious to know if the revised Decalogue … is to be only a watered-down version of the Mosaic Tables.
1921. G. C. Field, Moral Theory, xii. 153. It is only in a watered-down form that it [sc. love] can be extended, even by the best of us, to the whole of humanity.
c. Of the capital of a trading company: Diluted, increased in nominal amount by the issue of stock or shares for which no consideration has been received. Cf. WATER v. 7 e.
1899. Westm. Gaz., 7 March, 5/1. Deduct from that £1,250,000 of watered capital.
1904. Edin. Rev., Jan., 72. The Company had to pay a dividend on watered capital.
5. Of silk or other textile: Having a wavy lustrous damask-like pattern or finish. (Cf. WATER v. 9.)
1595[?]. Q. Eliz. & Levant Co. (1904), 87. Waltered and unwaltered Chamblletts.
1646. Mem. Rokeby (Surtees), 9. For watered tabba when my lady was at Yorke 6 l. 9 s. 9 d.
1649. Bury Wills (Camden), 220. My watered grogerin gowne.
1665. Hooke, Microgr., 8. Of watered Silks, or Stuffs.
1714. Fr. Bk. Rates, 365. Camlets watered and not watered.
1823. Rutter, Fonthill, 43. The hangings of crimson cloth and watered moreen are handsome.
1841. S. Warren, Ten Thou., I. viii. Over his waistcoat he wore … a broad black watered riband, to which was attached his eyeglass.
1860. Geo. Eliot, Mill on Floss, II. i. That watered-silk she had on cost a pretty penny.
1893. Liddon, Life Pusey, I. i. 5. She commonly wore a watered-silk dress.
b. Similarly of steel = DAMASCENED b.
1839. Ure, Dict. Arts, etc., 384. The watered design of the true Damascus scymitar.
1880. W. Egerton, Handbk. Ind. Arms, India Museum, 98. Dagger; ‘Kris’; watered blade.
1883. F. Pollock in Proc. Roy. Instit., X. 386. The damasked or ‘watered’ appearance of the blades which are most highly esteemed in the East.
† 6. Her. Having water of a specified tincture. Obs.
1780. Edmondson, Heraldry, II. Alph. Arms, Powell [Oxfordshire] … three wells az. watered ar.
