Watery

a. Forms: 1 wæteriʓ, wætriʓ, 3, 5 wateri, 5 watiry, wattery, watri, wattry, 5–6 watrye, 5–7 waterie, 5–8 watry, 6 waterye, Sc. wattirrie, 6–7 watrie, 7–9 wat’ry, 4– watery. [f. WATER sb. + -Y. Cf. Du. waterig, MLG. waterich, OHG. waʓʓirig, weʓʓirig (MHG. waʓʓeric, weʓʓeric, mod.G. † wasserig, wässerig).]

  1.  Of land or soil: Full of water; moist, plashy; well-watered.

c. 1000.  Ælfric, Hom., II. 402. Rixe weaxst ʓewunelice on wæteriʓum stowum.

c. 1100.  Gloss., in Wr.-Wülcker, 147/6. Alluvius ager, wæteriʓ æcer.

c. 1440.  Jacob’s Well, 250. Þis is a good moyst & a wattery ground for to haue in oure welle be-nethyn.

c. 1440.  Promp. Parv., 518/1. Watry, or fulle of water, aquosus, aquilentus. Watry, or fulle of moysture, humidus.

1577.  B. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb., I. 20. The watrie ground requireth more store of doung, and the drye ground the lesse.

a. 1593.  Marlowe, Ovid’s Eleg., I. xiv. 11. In hilly Idas watry plaines.

1653.  Walton, Angler, ix. 175. Rushes that grow in the water, or watry places.

1680.  Exact Jrnl. Siege Tangier, 11. The third [trench] being very deep and watry,… a Hundred and twenty four were there killed.

1796.  Southey, Lett. fr. Spain (1799), 320. In every little watry bottom the frogs croaked out a concert.

1842.  Hawthorne, Twice-told T., Ser. II. Seven Vagabonds. Some elderly clergyman, long vegetating in a rocky, woody, watery back settlement of New England.

1846.  R. E. Egerton Warburton, Hunting Songs, 129. Blackthorns stiff the fields divide With watery ditch on either side.

  b.  Of clouds: Full of moisture that is ready to fall as rain; rainy. Also of wind, a season, etc.

1377.  Langl., P. Pl., B. XVIII. 410. Is no weder warmer þan after watery cloudes.

1555.  Eden, Decades (Arb.), 133. Vapours … wherof the watery cloudes are engendred.

1669.  Worlidge, Syst. Agric. (1681), 291. At the rising of the Sun, if it appear hid in a black watry Cloud, Rain follows.

1743.  Francis, trans. Hor., Epodes, x. 19. While watry Winds the bellowing Ocean shake.

1883.  G. C. Davies, Norfolk Broads, xxxiii. 261. The watery year of 1879.

  c.  gen. Full of water, wet, dripping. rare.

1589.  Greene, Menaphon (Arb.), 23. The Mermaides … sate … drying their waterie tresses in the Sunne beames.

  d.  transf. Covered with, permeated by water; set or built in the water; washed by stream or tide.

1593.  Shaks., Lucr., 1611. And now this pale Swan in her watrie nest, Begins the sad Dirge of her certaine ending.

a. 1668.  Davenant, Poems (1672), 320. The Lark now leaves his watry Nest.

1793.  Blake, Songs Exp., Introd. 19. The starry floor, The wat’ry shore.

1878.  Joaquin Miller, Songs Italy, 13. Sweet Was the Christmas time in the watery town.

  2.  Resembling water in consistence; thin, fluid.

c. 1000.  Sax. Leechd., II. 236. Ʒif se utgang sie windiʓ and wætriʓ and blodiʓ.

1398.  Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., V. xxxvi. (Bodl. MS.). Þe herte sometyme quakeþ and þat comeþ of watery moisture.

a. 1425.  trans. Arderne’s Treat. Fistula, etc., 59. Raw fruytez gendreþ watry blode.

c. 1440.  Pallad. on Husb., IV. 6. For now this vines … Not wattery but thicke humoures wepe.

1561.  T. Gale, Antidot., II. 15. Boyle them and take two pounde of the Musilage and boyle it with the other thynges vntyll all that is waterye bee consumed.

1626.  Bacon, Sylva, § 30. Quick Siluer, (which is a most Crude and Watry Body).

1787.  in Sixth Rep. Dep. Kpr. Publ. Rec., II. 177. When the mixture of Oil or Oily Substances with Acetous or Watery Liquors is required.

1842.  Loudon, Suburban Hort., 283. The mistletoe … can live on all exogens of which the ascending sap is of a watery consistence.

1899.  Allbutt’s Syst. Med., VII. 815. From the watery conditions of the blood results a transudation of serum.

  3.  Having the appearance of water; resembling water in color. Of color: Pale, looking as if diluted with water.

  Said esp. of an overcast condition, betokening rain, of the sky, sun, moon, etc.

c. 1407.  Lydg., Reson & Sens., 1417. Me thought, I sawgh a Reyne-bowe Or blywe and rede and watiry grene.

1585.  Higins, Junius’ Nomencl., 176/2. Aqueus,… a pale white like water, or a waterie colour.

a. 1628.  Preston, Serm. bef. his Majestie (1630), 26. The prosperitie of wicked men, like a waterie sun-shine may for a while continue.

1697.  Dryden, Virg. Georg., I. 608. But if his Cheeks are swoln with livid blue, He bodes wet Weather by his watery Hue.

1738.  Gray, Tasso, 45. The watery glimmerings of a fainter day.

1808.  Scott, Marmion, I. Introd. 26. Where yet some faded herbage pines, And yet a watery sunbeam shines.

1821.  Shelley, Evening at Pisa, 23. A space of watery blue, Which the keen evening star is shining through.

1886.  W. J. Tucker, E. Europe, 401. His eyes were small and of a watery blue.

  b.  In comb. with an adj. of color.

1887.  Phillips, Brit. Discomyc., 82. Cup sessile, globose,… watery-grey;… Cup … pale watery-brown, or cinereous.

1913.  Mrs. Stratton-Porter, Laddie, xvii. (1916), 350. Shelley said you were a little bit of a man, with watery blue eyes, and whiter hair than mine.

  4.  Of the nature of water.

1477.  Norton, Ord. Alch., v. in Ashm. (1652), 65. Wann or leady Colour ingendred is Of Waterie and Erthy parts without amisse.

1604.  Jas. I., Counterbl. to Tobacco (Arb.), 104. Raynes, Snowes, Deawes, hoare Frostes, and such like waterie Meteors.

1633.  G. Herbert, Temple, Grief, 3. My grief hath need of all the watry things, That nature hath produc’d.

a. 1676.  Hale, Prim. Orig. Man., I. iii. (1677), 76. The Clouds are attracted out of moist and watry, and also earthy Vapours.

1750.  G. Hughes, Barbados, I. 20. The Resistance … will compel these thin watry Vesicles to coalesce … into Drops.

1787.  Winter, Syst. Husb., 73. Heat … resolves the watry and oily particles of the earth into vapour.

1876.  Bristowe, Th. & Pract. Med. (1878), 817. The watery constituent [of urine].

1877.  Huxley, Physiogr., 67. The watery vapour in the atmosphere.

  b.  applied to the rainbow. poet.

1600.  Wisd. Dr. Dodypoll, I. A 3 b. Looke on the ayre, where with a hundred changes The watry Rain-bow doth imbrace the earth.

1610.  Shaks., Temp., IV. i. 71. The Queene o’ th Skie, Whose watry Arch, and messenger, am I.

1755.  Young, Centaur, ii. Wks. 1757, IV. 145. As if in kindly showers the watry bow had shed all its most celestial colours on it.

  † c.  = AQUEOUS 1 b. Obs.

1615.  Crooke, Body of Man, VIII. ix. (1631), 565. These three humors [of the eye] are called the Watery, the Christalline, and the Glassy.

1699.  Gid. Harvey, Van. Philos. & Physick, 169. To preserve the Eye-sight,… By attenuating the Horny Tunic and the watery Humour.

  d.  Of a chemical extract, solution, etc.: Made with water, aqueous.

1826.  Henry, Elem. Chem., II. 545. The watery solution may contain a variety of salts.

1857.  Miller, Elem. Chem., Org., 528. The formation of the blue colouring matter in watery extracts of the plant.

1863.  Curling, Dis. Rectum (1876), 45. The watery extract of aloes.

1871.  B. Stewart, Heat, § 53. Various watery solutions also possess their own points of maximum density.

1889.  Century Dict., s.v. Fusion, Aqueous or watery fusion, the melting of certain crystals by heat in their own water of crystallization.

  5.  Consisting of water. Chiefly poet. or rhet. of natural features, as the sea and rivers. Watery way, a route by which one journeys over water.

1535.  Coverdale, Ps. lxxvii. 20. He smote the stony rocke, that the watery streames gusshed out.

c. 1586.  C’tess Pembroke, Ps. XLVI. i. Yea soe lett seas withall, In watry hills arise, As may the earthlie hills appall.

1590.  Shaks., Mids. N., I. i. 210. When Phœbe doth behold Her siluer visage in the watry glasse.

1605[?].  Drayton, Poems Lyr. & Past., Eglog v. E 6. Conuey her prayse to Neptunes watry realme.

1667.  Milton, P. L., XI. 779. Those few escap’t Famin and anguish will at last consume Wandring that watrie Desert.

1678.  Cudworth, Intell. Syst., 358. That the gods (or stars) … were at first made out of the ocean—that is out of the watry chaos.

1697.  Dryden, Virg. Georg., II. 625. Keels of Ships, that scour the watry Plains.

1715.  Pope, Iliad, II. 685. In fourscore Barks they plow the watry Way.

1854.  J. S. C. Abbott, Napoleon (1855), I. v. 107. England was mistress of the sea, and she respected no rights of private property upon her watery domain.

1863.  Baring-Gould, Iceland, 189. A quaint peep of the landscape is obtained through a watery arch, spouted from a hollow.

1887.  Bowen, Virg. Æneid, I. 376. Sailing from ancient Troy … o’er many a watery way.

  b.  Watery grave, † tomb: the place in which a person lies drowned. Similarly watery death.

1601.  Shaks., Twel. N., V. i. 241. So went he suited to his watery tombe. Ibid. (1608), Pericles, II. i. 10. Hauing throwne him from your watry graue.

1802.  in J. D. Parry, Coast of Sussex (1833), 72. Last month, a youth of Brighton was rescued from the watery grave, and restored to his father.

1829.  Landor, Imag. Conv., Chaucer, Boccaccio, & Petrarca, Wks. 1853, I. 416/1. The horrors of a watery grave.

1831.  Scott, Ct. Robt., xxix. To exchange … a watery death for one by the more dreadful agency of fire.

1857.  Recoll. Western Texas, 13. O’H— and another … being unable to swim, soon found a watery grave.

  6.  Of, belonging to, connected with the water; aquatic. Now rare. a. of plants and animals that live in or on the water.

1398.  Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XIII. xxvi. (1495), 456. Fysshe lyckyth therthe and watry herbes and soo gete they meete and nourysshynge.

1586.  T. B., La Primaud. Fr. Acad., I. 10. Earthie and waterie creatures.

1601.  Dolman, Ibid., III. lxii. 286. God hath created them [fish] like watrie birdes, to whom he hath giuen wings agreeable to the element for to sustaine themselues with.

1610.  Holland, Camden’s Brit. (1637), 491. Alders, beside other watery Shrubbes.

1626.  Bacon, Sylva, § 656. The Reed or Cane is a Watry Plant, and groweth not but in the Water.

1697.  Dryden, Virg. Georg., I. 527. The sev’ral sorts of watry Fowls, That swim the Seas, or haunt the standing Pools.

1725.  Pope, Odyss., V. 64. Wat’ry fowl that seek their fishy food.

  b.  as an epithet of deities, etc.

1593.  Shaks., Rich. II., II. i. 63. Whose rocky shore beates backe the enuious siedge Of watery Neptune.

1595.  Locrine, V. iv. 17. The watrie ladies and the lightfoote fawnes, And all the rabble of the wooddie Nymphs.

1617.  J. Taylor (Water P.), Three Wks. Observ., Ep. Ded. A 4 b. Neptune, Æolus, Tellus, Bacchus, and all the watery, windy, earthly, and drinking Deities.

1697.  Dryden, Virg. Georg., I. 43. The watry Virgins for thy Bed shall strive.

1747.  Gray, Ode on Death of Cat, 32. She mew’d to ev’ry watry God.

1801.  S. Turner, Hist. Anglo-Sax., III. [IV.] ii. II. 39. These watery sovereigns [the sea-kings of the North], who … flourished in the plunder of the sea and its shores.

1803.  Sir A. Boswell, Spirit of Tintoc, To Rdr. These seem to have had perfect effect on the watery spirit Kelpy, but none on the ethereal demons of Tintoc.

  c.  as an epithet of heavenly bodies, portents, seasons, etc., which are thought to bring rain.

c. 1400.  trans. Secreta Secret., Gov. Lordsh., 86. Whenne þe mone ys yn þe watery tokenynges.

c. 1440.  Astron. Cal. (MS. Ashm. 391). Þis signe is stedfaste septentrional … flewmatik and watri in kinde.

a. 1548.  Hall, Chron., Hen. VIII., 123 b. The sayd writers declared that this yere should be such Eclipses in watery signes, and suche coniunctions that by waters & fluddes many people should perishe.

1594.  Shaks., Rich. III., II. ii. 69. That I being gouern’d by the waterie Moone, May send forth plenteous teares to drowne the World. Ibid. (1611), Wint. T., I. ii. 1. Nine Changes of the Watry-Starre.

1696.  Phillips (ed. 5), Watry Triplicity, the Signs so accounted, being cold and moist, are Gemini, Scorpio and Pisces.

1705.  Addison, Italy, Bolonia, etc., 442. [trans. Claudian] … The Mourning Sisters weep in watry Signs.

1774.  Bryant, Mythol., II. 341. The constellation of the Hyades … was a watry sign.

1818.  J. Taylor, Antiq. Cur., 156. Index, Swithin St., the watery saint.

1901.  Daily Chron., 15 July, 5/1. In France the watery saints’ days are those of St. Médard (June 8) and St. Gervais and St. Protais (June 19).

  d.  gen.

  Watery way, journey, (one’s) way or journey over the water: cf. 5.

a. 1586.  Sidney, Arcadia, I. xiv. § 1. The table was set neere to an excellent water-worke…. There were birds also made so finely, that they did not onely deceiue the sight with their figure, but the hearing with their songs; which the watrie instruments did make their gorge deliuer.

1622.  J. Taylor (Water P.), Farew. Tower-Bottles, A 4. When Vpland Tradesmen thus dares take in hand A wat’ry buis’nesse, they not vnderstand.

1697.  Dryden, Æneis, V. 1. Mean time the Trojan cuts his watry way, Fix’d on his Voyage, thro the curling Sea.

1764.  Goldsm., Trav., 289. The firm connected bulwark … Spreads its long arms amidst the watery roar.

1810.  Scott, Lady of Lake, II. xxvi. Now back they wend their watery way.

1859.  Dickens, etc., Haunted Ho., i. 7/2. Mr. Beaver … proved to be an intelligent man, with a world of watery experiences in him.

1881.  Miss Braddon, Asphodel, I. 210. The Rector’s wife heard of her niece’s watery meanderings and gipsy breakfasts.

  7.  Of food: Containing too much moisture; tasting too much like water; thin, flavorless.

c. 1440.  Pallad. on Husb., I. 195. Olyuys … With drasty wattry fruyt.

1653.  Walton, Angler, vi. 136. The He Salmon … is more kipper … then the She is; yet she is … as watry and as bad meat.

1846.  Soyer, Cookery, 451. Be careful they are not too much done, or they would go in purée and taste watery.

1871.  B. Taylor, Faust (1875), I. vi. 102. We’re cooking watery soup for beggars.

  b.  Of a plant or its parts: Containing a large proportion of moisture.

1842.  Loudon, Suburban Hort., 84. By greatly increasing the perspiration of the leaves and other parts of plants, wind renders them less watery.

1882.  Garden, 20 May, 354/2. It rarely happens that we find a single watery shoot in a tree which requires pinchings to maintain the proper balance of the sap.

  8.  Of the eyes: a. Suffused with tears, tearful. Hence transf., of weeping, lamentation, etc.

1447.  Bokenham, Seyntys, Magd., 1003. Wyth wattry yhe The shypmen he preyid & yaf hem yiftys also.

1588.  Greene, Pandosto, Wks. (Grosart), IV. 264. Pandosto would once a day repaire to the Tombe, and there with watry plaintes bewaile his misfortune.

1591.  Spenser, M. Hubberd, 1362. With fained face, and watrie eyne halfe weeping.

a. 1631.  Donne, Lament. Jer. iii. 48. With watry rivers doth mine eye oreflow.

1837.  Lockhart, Scott, IV. xi. 356. The Royal Exile surveyed it with a flushed cheek and a watery eye.

1855.  Thackeray, Newcomes, xxvi. Little Rosey and her mother sobbed audibly,… to the surprise of … Miss Honeyman, who had no idea of such watery exhibitions.

1861.  Dickens, Gt. Expect., vii. Joe’s blue eyes turned a little watery.

  b.  Exuding moisture, as a result of weakness or disease in the lachrymal glands. Watery eye = EPIPHORA 1.

c. 1460.  J. Russell, Bk. Nurture, 282, in Babees-bk., 134. Glowtynge ne twynkelynge with youre yȝe, ne … watery, wynkynge, ne droppynge, but of sight clere.

1486.  Bk. St. Albans, b ij. An hauke that is broght vp vnder a Bussard or a Puttock: as mony be: hath wateri Eyghen.

1601.  Holland, Pliny, XXI. xix. II. 103. But a peculiar vertue they [violets] have besides to stay the running and waterie eyes.

1799.  Underwood, Dis. Childhood (ed. 4), II. 35. [Ophthalmia] will sometimes degenerate into what is termed the watery eye…. There is, however, a case of watery-eye attending older children, in which the discharge is very hot and acrid.

1843.  R. J. Graves, Syst. Clin. Med., xxv. 309. His eyes became very red, watery, and intolerant of light.

  9.  Of the skin, part of the body: Exuding, or suffused with, a humour or moisture resembling water. † Hence in names of diseases, as watery mouth, itch; watery head = HYDROCEPHALUS. Cf. also 8 b.

a. 1425.  trans. Arderne’s Treat. Fistula, etc., 50. Þe watry placez I enoynted with ane oyntement made of blak sope, and poudre of sulphur.

1523–34.  Fitzherb., Husb., § 55. Yf the skynne be of ruddy colour and drye, than is he sounde, and if it be pale coloured and watrye, thanne is he rotten.

1697.  J. Lewis, Mem. Dk. Glocester (1789), 50. The Duke was not the stoutest child, and had been subject to a watry mouth, which now grew better.

1728.  Chambers, Cycl., Hydrocephalus,… a watery Head, or Dropsy in the Head.

1818–20.  E. Thompson, trans. Cullen’s Nosol. (ed. 3), 331. Scabies lymphatica, or watery itch.

1820.  Good, Nosology, 490. Scabies … Vesicularis. Eruption of larger … vesicles filled with a transparent fluid…. Watery Itch.

1890.  Retrospect Med., CII. 172. The brain was watery, the veins turgid.

  10.  fig. Of thought, feeling, literary or artistic composition, persons, etc.: Vapid, washy, poor, thin.

a. 1225.  Ancr. R., 376. Þe heorte, þet was wateri, smecchles, and ne uelede no sauur of God.

1605.  Bacon, Adv. Learn., I. iv. § 2. Then grew the flowing, and watrie vaine of Osorius the Portugall Bishop to be in price.

1673.  Hickeringill, Greg. F. Greyb., 183. A loose, flashy, watery memory, that will hold no Print, nor retain impression.

1843.  Carlyle, Past & Pr., II. i. (1858), 109. Through the thin watery gossip, of our Jocelin, we do get some glimpses of that deep-buried Time.

1851.  Tennyson, Edwin Morris, 128. Slight Sir Robert with his watery smile And educated whisker.

1858.  G. Macdonald, Phantastes, x. (1878), 151. New cataracts of watery melodies.

1875.  Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), III. 204. Do not tell me that justice is duty … for that sort of watery stuff will not do for me.

1904.  M. Hewlett, Queen’s Quair, II. vi. 265. She would calculate as she listened … to what extent she might serve herself yet of this watery fool.

1904.  Times Lit. Suppl., 1 April, 104/1. A watery but harmless story of London society.

  11.  Her. (See quot.)

1486.  [see UNDATED a. 1].

1572.  [see UNDADIE a.].

c. 1828.  Berry, Encycl. Her., I. Gloss., Watery. This term sometimes occurs, and is used in the same sense as wavy, or undée.

  12.  Comb. in parasynthetic adjs.

1568.  Skeyne, The Pest (1860), 13. Vrine … first vaterie colourit, thairefter of bilious colour.

1683.  Lond. Gaz., No. 1805/4. A Sorrel Nag,… watery Eyed.

1785.  Grose, Dict. Vulgar T., Watery headed, apt to shed tears.

1883.  Harper’s Mag., April, 697/1. The … rubicund-visaged watery eyed driver.