ˈbilge-water
a. The water that collects in the bilge of a ship through leakage or otherwise, and becomes disgustingly foul and noxious.
| 1706 Phillips, Bildge-Water, that water which..cannot come to the Well in the Ship's Hold. 1751 Smollett Per. Pic. lx, May I be bound to eat oakum and drink bilge-water for life. 1840 R. Dana Bef. Mast ii. 3 That inexpressibly sickening smell, caused by the shaking up of the bilge-water in the hold. |
b. = bilge n. 1 c. slang.
| 1878 G. M. Hopkins Let. 13 May (1935) 50 Write no bilgewater about it. |