The state of the tide when the surface of the water is lowest; the time when the tide is at the lowest ebb. (Cf. HIGH WATER.) † Also, in a river, a time when the stream is shallow.
1530. Palsgr., 241/1. Lowe water, leave basse.
a. 1548. Hall, Chron., Edw. IV., 209. As nere as their great shyppes could come at the lowe water.
1582. in W. H. Turner, Select. Rec. Oxford, 426. At everye hyghe and ragynge water youre slueses … should be drawne upp…. And at everye lowe water your … sluses should be … shutte.
1670. Speed, in Bedloe, Popish Plot, 21. He bid him observe the Tide, and be sure to do it within an hour of low water.
1762. Borlase, in Phil. Trans., LII. 420. At Kinsale,… near dead low-water, the tide rose suddenly on the strand.
1853. Sir H. Douglas, Milit. Bridges (ed. 3), 50. A certain number of pontoons would … be left aground at every low water.
1882. E. P. Edwards, in Gd. Words, April, 248. Rocky peaks showing only above low-water.
fig. 1877. Gd. Words, XVIII. 18/2. In summer … everything is at dead low-water.
b. attrib. † Of a soldier = FRESHWATER 2 b.
1643. [Angier], Lanc. Vall. Achor, 7. Fire is a cruell Lord, and dreadfull object to fresh and low-water souldiers.
c. fig. Chiefly in phr. in low water: ‘hard up,’ impoverished.
1785. Grose, Dict. Vulg. Tongue, Low tide or low water, when there is no money in a man’s pocket.
1885. Chamb. Jrnl., 21 Feb., 125/2. Law-breakers … who, having been ‘put away,’ and done their time, found themselves in low water upon their return to the outer world.
1886. Miss Braddon, Mohawks, I. iv. 94. His lordship was in low water financially.
