watery, a.
(ˈwɔːtərɪ)
Forms: 1 wæteriᵹ, wætriᵹ, 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 n. + -y. Cf. Du. waterig, MLG. waterich, OHG. waȥȥirig, weȥȥirig (MHG. waȥȥeric, weȥȥeric, mod.G. † wasserig, wässerig).]
1. Of land or soil: Full of water; moist, plashy; well-watered.
| c 1000 ælfric Hom. II. 402 Rixe weaxst ᵹewunelice on wæteriᵹum stowum. c 1100 Gloss. in Wr.-Wülcker 147/6 Alluvius ager, wæteriᵹ æcer. 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 which 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 tr. 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 Shakes. 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 Ᵹif se utgang sie windiᵹ and wætriᵹ and blodiᵹ. 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. v. xxxvi. (Bodl. MS.), Þe herte sometyme quakeþ and þat comeþ of watery moisture. a 1425 tr. 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 colour. Of colour: 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 Of 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 Marm. 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 colour.
| 1887 Phillips Brit. Discomyc. 82 Cup sessile, globose,..watery-grey;..Cup..pale watery-brown, or cinereous. 1913 G. S. Porter Laddie xvii. (1917) 350 A little bit of a man, with watery blue eyes. |
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. 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 J. S. 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 Shakes. 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 T. B. 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 Shakes. 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, † watery tomb: the place in which a person lies drowned. Similarly watery death.
| 1601 Shakes. Twel. N. v. i. 241 So went he suited to his watery tombe. 1608 ― Per. 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. Rob. 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 Shakes. 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 tr. 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 Shakes. Rich. III, ii. ii. 69 That I being gouern'd by the waterie Moone, May send forth plenteous teares to drowne the World. 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 [tr. 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, watery 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 L. ii. xxvi, Now back they wend their watery way. 1859 Dickens Haunted Ho. i. 7/2 Mr. Beaver..proved to be an intelligent man, with a world of watery experiences in him. 1881 M. E. Braddon Asph. 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, flavourless.
| 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 A. 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 O. 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, watery itch; watery head = hydrocephalus. Cf. also 8 b.
| a 1425 tr. 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 tr. Cullen's Nosol. (ed. 3) 331 Scabies lymphatica, or watery itch. 1820 Good Nosol. 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. Greybeard 183 A loose, flashy, watery memory that will hold no print. 1843 Carlyle Past & Pr. ii. ii. (1858) 109 Through the thin watery gossip of our Jocelin, we do get some glimpses of that deep-buried Time. 1851 Tennyson E. 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 Apr. 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 G. Skeyne 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. Apr. 697/1 The..rubicund-visaged watery-eyed driver. |