low water
The state of the tide when the surface of the water is lowest; the time when the tide is at the lowest ebb. (Cf. high water.) † Also, in a river, a time when the stream is shallow.
| 1530 Palsgr. 241/1 Lowe water, leave basse. a 1548 Hall Chron., Edw. IV 209 As nere as their great shyppes could come at the lowe water. 1582 in Turner Select. Rec. Oxford 426 At everye hyghe and ragynge water youre slueses..should be drawne upp... And at everye lowe water your..sluses should be..shutte. 1670 Speed in Bedloe Popish Plot 21 He bid him observe the Tide, and be sure to do it within an hour of low water. 1762 Borlase in Phil. Trans. LII. 420 At Kinsale,..near dead low-water, the tide rose suddenly on the strand. 1853 Sir H. Douglas Milit. Bridges (ed. 3) 50 A certain number of pontoons would..be left aground at every low water. 1882 E. P. Edwards in Gd. Words Apr. 248 Rocky peaks showing only above low-water. |
| fig. 1877 Gd. Words XVIII. 18/2 In summer..everything is at dead low-water. |
b. attrib. † Of a soldier
= freshwater 2 b.
| 1643 [Angier] Lanc. Vall. Achor 7 Fire is a cruell Lord, and dreadfull object to fresh and low-water souldiers. |
c. fig. Chiefly in
phr. in low water: ‘hard up’, impoverished.
| 1785 Grose Dict. Vulg. Tongue, Low tide or Low water, when there is no money in a man's pocket. 1885 Chamb. Jrnl. 21 Feb. 125/2 Law-breakers..who, having been ‘put away’, and done their time, found themselves in low water upon their return to the outer world. 1886 M. E. Braddon Mohawks I. iv. 94 His lordship was in low water financially. |