water-bloom
(ˈwɔːtəbluːm)
[f. water n. + bloom n.1]
1. A flower living in water. poet. rare.
| 1820 Shelley Sensit. Pl. iii. 42 The water-blooms under the rivulet Fell from the stalks on which they were set. |
2. [tr. G. wasserblüte.] (See quot. 1957.) Cf. red-water 4.
| 1927, 1948 [see breaking vbl. n. 2 c]. 1957 New Biol. XXIII. 86 ‘Water-bloom’..describes the discoloration of the waters of ponds and lakes, sometimes slow-flowing rivers and occasionally vast areas of the sea by a superabundance of free-floating, microscopic, plant and, in rare cases, animal life. 1963 [see peridinian]. |