ˈditch-water
The stagnant, stale, or foul water which collects in a ditch. Chiefly in the phrases: † as digne as d. (see digne 4); † as light (i.e. easy) as d.; as dull as d.
| c 1394 P. Pt. Crede 375 Þey ben digne as dich water þat dogges in bayteþ. c 1425 Craft Nombrynge (E.E.T.S.) 16 Þen worch forth in þe oþer figurys till þou come to þe ende, for it is lyght as dyche water. 1819 Shelley Cenci ii. i. 67 Ditch water, and the fever-stricken flesh Of buffaloes. 1844 W. H. Maxwell Sports & Adv. Scotl. (1855) 17 The people..are as ‘dull as ditch-water’. 1893 G. Travers Mona Maclean I. 203, I find them dull as ditch-water. |
| attrib. 1826 H. N. Coleridge West Indies 295 In virtue of their freckled ditchwater faces. |
Hence
ˈditchwaterly adv. = ‘as ditch-water’ (see above);
ˈditchˌwatery a., of the quality of ditch-water, dull as ditch-water; whence
ˈditchˌwateriness. (
nonce-wds.)
| 1840 Fraser's Mag. XXI. 19 If it be so prepared as to be piquant, then, it is of small consequence what may be its ditch-wateriness. 1859 Sala Gas-light & D. xxiv. 270 How wofully tired, and ditchwaterly dull they look. |