[UN-2 4.] trans. To drain of water, to carry off water from; spec. in Mining (see b).
The word occurs as a mistranslation in:
a. 1300. E. E. Psalter lxxvii. 23. (E., H.), He smot þe stane, and watres outran, And scaldand unwatred [L. inundaverunt] þai ilkan.
a. 1642. C. Vermuyden, Disc. Fennes, 5. By these Out-falls the said Rivers and Lands unwater themselves.
1872. W. F. Butler, Gt. Lone Land, iv. (1875), 60. The St. Croix [river] unwatering the great tract of pine land.
1880. Haughton, Phys. Geogr., x. 192. The rivers of China unwater the whole eastern slope of the table-land.
b. 1769. Smeaton, in Glynn, Treat. Power Water (1853), 99. The first complete engine … at work … for draining or unwatering a lead mine.
1778. Pryce, Min. Cornub., 146. Many more valuable Lodes have been discovered, than those they were driving to unwater.
1865. J. T. F. Turner, Slate Quarries, 22. The pits are unwatered by one engine pump.
1883. Encycl. Brit., XVI. 458/1. Siphons have been used for unwatering workings in special cases.
Hence Unwatering vbl. sb.
1778. Pryce, Min. Cornub., 152. The innumerable Adits … are of some importance to the unwatering of the Mines.
