▪ I. † ˈwatered, a. Obs.
[f. water n. + -ed2.]
In parasynthetic derivatives, said of a jewel: Characterized by ‘water’ (of a specified quality).
| a 1637 B. Jonson Execr. Vulcan, etc. (1640) G 2 b, A stocke, To graft the greene Emrald on, Or any better water'd Stone. 1704 Lond. Gaz. No. 3990/4 The Brilliant very clean and white watered. |
▪ II. watered, ppl. a.
(ˈwɔːtəd)
[f. water v. + -ed1.]
† 1. Of the eyes: Filled or running with watery matter or with tears. Obs.
| a 1400 Stockholm Med. MS. i. 80 in Anglia XVIII. 297 For wattryd eyne & to grety. 1578 H. Wotton Courtlie Controv. 67 Bending hir watered eyes and woful hart with ioyned hands vnto the heauens, she prayed [etc.]. 1593 Deloney Garland Good Will F 1 b, Let not offence be found in this, To give my Lord a parting kiss With watr'd eyes. |
2. a. Soaked or steeped in water.
| c 1430 Two Cookery-bks. 26 Take Soundys of watteryd Stokkefysshe, an caste þer-to. 1681 S. Colvil Whigs Supplic. ii. (1741) 114 Our throats cut, Down which we watered Meal of Oats put. |
† b. Of the cheeks: Wet with tears. Obs.
| 1571 Duke of Norfolk in 14th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm. App. iv. 574 Prayinge..with an overwhelminge harte and watered cheekes. 1597 Hooker Eccl. Pol. v. xlii. §2 [They] could not..but with bleeding harts and with watred cheekes be⁓hold a person of so great place and worth constrayned to indure so foule indignities. |
c. Of a road: Soaked or sprinkled with water to lay the dust, etc.
| 1853 Dickens Bleak Ho. xix, A shop with a sun-blind, and a watered pavement..is a sanctuary. 1896 J. Davidson Fleet St. Eclogues Ser. ii. 48 The odour stale Of watered streets. |
3. a. Of a garden, land: Kept moist by pouring or sprinkling water.
| 1535 Coverdale Jer. xxxi. 12 Their conscience shalbe as a well watred garden. [1611 Bible Ibid., Their soule shall be as a watered garden.] 1552 Huloet, Watered as a field, or gardein, rigatus... Watred with dew, rosidus. 1654 C. Wase Gratius' Cyneget. A 3 b, But the poore Alaband in his water'd yard Plants grounds of hemp. 1826 Sherer Notes & Refl. Ramble Germany 180 The plain is wooded as though it were a forest, and yet you know it to be a watered garden. |
b. Of a country, locality: Furnished or supplied with rivers or streams of water. Often with adv., as well-watered, best-watered. Of a road: Having streams of water near-by, convenient for travellers.
| 1798 Bloomfield Farmer's Boy, Spring 38 Where noble Grafton spreads his rich domains, Round Euston's water'd vale, and sloping plains. a 1859 Macaulay Hist. Eng. xxiii. V. 95 That well watered garden of olives and mulberry trees which spreads many miles on every side of the great white temple of Milan. 1859 H. Kingsley G. Hamlyn xxv, I should say it was the best watered..piece of country yet discovered in New Holland. 1893 F. C. Selous Trav. S.E. Africa 14, I took the best watered of the roads leading to the Marico river. 1895 Daily News 22 Oct. 2/1 [Australian Advt.] Good and watered roads pass through the properties. |
c. Of meadow land: Subject to periodical flooding. (Cf. water-meadow.)
| 1733 Tull Horse-Hoeing Husb. xi. 111 Water, when it runs off very soon, is Beneficial, as is seen in water'd Meadows. 1774 Pennsylv. Gaz. 10 Aug., Suppl. 2/2 About 7 acres of watered meadow. 1789 T. Wright Meth. Watering Meadows (1790) 6 The farmer who occupies fifty acres of this watered land. 1826 Cobbett Rur. Rides (1830) 398 Here are watered meadows nearest to the river on both sides; then the gardens, the houses, and the cornfields. 1842 J. Aiton Domest. Econ. (1857) 181 Watered meadow, even to the extent of one acre, is a perfect treasure at the manse. 1884 West. Morn. News 30 Aug. 1/6 Twenty-four acres of watered meadow. |
4. a. Of wine or strong liquor, milk, etc.: Diluted with water. Now usu. as watered-down; cf. 4 b below.
| 1552 Huloet, Watered, or whereunto water is put, aquatus. 1642 Howell For. Trav. (Arb.) 32 Go to their Diet, the one drinkes Watered Wine, the other Wine watered. 1873 O. W. Holmes Addr. Opening Fifth Avenue Theatre 127 Dealers in watered milk. 1905 H. G. Wells Kipps i. ii. §2 A supper of bread and cheese and watered beer awaited him downstairs. 1976 P. Cave High Flying Birds iv. 51 He matched Lorna glass for glass, chucking the stuff down as though it was watered-down Coke. 1978 A. Gilchrist Cod Wars ii. 7 A watered-down beer, unworthy of the name, is legally sold. |
b. fig. Weakened in character or force by alteration or addition. Now usu. watered-down.
| 1889 ‘Mark Twain’ Connecticut Yankee iv. 55 Everybody took in all this bosh..and never smiled or seemed to notice that there was any discrepancy between these watered statistics and me. 1897 F. Harrison in Daily News 2 Jan. 3/5 A watered orthodoxy and a timid ecclesiasticism. 1898 Westm. Gaz. 27 July 8/1 The religious and the profane alike are..anxious to know if the revised Decalogue..is to be only a watered-down version of the Mosaic Tables. 1921 G. C. Field Moral Theory xii. 153 It is only in a watered-down form that it [sc. love] can be extended..to the whole of humanity. |
c. Of the capital of a trading company: Diluted, increased in nominal amount by the issue of stock or shares for which no consideration has been received. Cf. water v. 7 e.
| 1899 Westm. Gaz. 7 Mar. 5/1 Deduct from that {pstlg}1,250,000 of watered capital. 1904 Edin. Rev. Jan. 72 The Company had to pay a dividend on watered capital. |
5. a. Of silk or other textile: Having a wavy lustrous damask-like pattern or finish. (Cf. water v. 9.)
| ? 1595 Q. Eliz. & Levant Co. (1904) 87 Waltered and un⁓waltered Chamblletts. 1646 Mem. Rokeby (Surtees) 9 For watered tabba when my lady was at Yorke 6 l. 9 s. 9 d. 1649 Bury Wills (Camden) 220 My watered grogerin gowne. 1665 Hooke Microgr. 8 Of watered Silks, or Stuffs. 1714 Fr. Bk. Rates 365 Camlets watered and not watered. 1823 Rutter Fonthill 43 The hangings of crimson cloth and watered moreen are handsome. 1841 S. Warren Ten Thou. i. viii, Over his waistcoat he wore..a broad black watered riband, to which was attached his eyeglass. 1860 Geo. Eliot Mill on Fl. ii. i, That watered-silk she had on cost a pretty penny. 1893 Liddon Life Pusey I. i. 5 She commonly wore a watered-silk dress. |
b. Similarly of steel = damascened b.
| 1839 Ure Dict. Arts, etc. 384 The watered design of the true Damascus scymitar. 1880 W. Egerton Handbk. Ind. Arms, India Museum 98 Dagger; ‘Kris’; watered blade. 1883 F. Pollock in Proc. Roy. Instit. X. 386 The damasked or ‘watered’ appearance of the blades which are most highly esteemed in the East. |
† 6. Her. Having water of a specified tincture. Obs.
| 1780 Edmondson Heraldry II. Alph. Arms, Powell [Oxfordshire]..three wells az. watered ar. |