subs. phr. (common).—Weak LAP (q.v.) of any kind: spec. (modern) tea very much watered down, but orig. (RAY, 1672) very thin beer: also WATER-DAMAGED: cf. HUSBAND’S-TEA.
1709–10. SWIFT, Polite Conversation, i. Your ladyship is very sparing of your tea; I protest the last dish I took was no more than WATER BEWITCHT.
1725. N. BAILEY, trans. The Colloquies of Erasmus, 376. As for the broth, it was nothing but a little WATER BEWITCHED (mera aqua).
1835. R. H. DANA, Jr., Two Years Before the Mast, 10 Nov. A tin pot full of hot tea (or as the sailors significantly call it, ‘WATER BEWITCHED’) sweetened with molasses. Ibid. Our common beverage—‘WATER BEWITCHED, and tea begrudged,’ as it was.
1845. CARLYLE, Cromwell, i. 13. Another book of Noble’s called Lives of the Regicides … is of much more stupid character; nearly meaningless indeed, mere WATER BEWITCHED.
