ˈwatercourse
1. A stream of water, a river or brook; also an artificial channel for the conveyance of water.
| 1510 in Glasscock Rec. St. Michael's, Bp.'s Stortford (1882) 31 Item of Rychard wood for a watercorse, jd. 1550 W. Hunnis Ps. vi. (1583) 3 Nor in the deepe, and water course, That passeth vnder ground. 1611 Bible Isa. xliv. 4 They shall spring vp..as willowes by the water courses. 1724 Act 11 Geo. I, c. 11 §7 To cleanse any Ditch or Water-course adjoyning to the said Roads. 1846 J. Baxter's Libr. Pract. Agric. I. 229 My own ditches or watercourses are four feet wide. 1849 Layard Nineveh & Rem. I. vii. 175 Water⁓courses, once carrying fertility to many gardens, were now empty and dry. 1865 Geikie Scen. & Geol. Scot. i. 7 Water⁓courses, from the tiniest runnel up to the ample river. |
| attrib. 1869 Boutell Arms & Armour iv. 60 In its form, one of these shields is an elongated and convex oblong, somewhat resembling a hollowed water-course tile. |
| fig. 1570 T. Norton tr. Nowell's Catech. 68 b, From the spring hed of his diuine liberalitie as it were by certaine guiding of water courses, God conueyeth his benefites to vs by the handes of men. |
b. in legal use (see
quot. 1848).
| 1576 in W. H. Turner Select. Rec. Oxford (1880) 385 The dyche, tearmed to be a water course,..hath bene stopped. 1626 Whitlock, J. in Bulstrode Rep. iii. (1659) 340 A Water course doth not begin by prescription, nor yet by assent, but the same doth begin ex jure naturæ, having taken this course naturally, and cannot be averted. 1681 Stair Inst. Law Scot. i. xvii. §12. 345 Without such a Servitude, Water may not be altered or diverted from its course, as was found, where the Water-course was the March betwixt the Heretors. 1725 Mod. Rep. (1769) II. 274 For suppose a man hath a water-course running through his ground, and his neighbour diverts it, this is no trespass. 1832 Act 2 & 3 Will. IV, c. 71 §2 No Claim which may be lawfully made..to any Water⁓course, or the Use of any Water, to be enjoyed [etc.]. 1848 Wharton Law Lex., Watercourse, a species of incorporeal hereditament, being a right which one has to the benefit of the flow of a river or stream, such right commonly referring to a stream passing through one's land. |
† c. Court of the Watercourse (see
quot.).
Obs.| 1698–9 Act 11 Will. III c. 21. §14 Any Right..claimed.. for the holding a certaine Court within the said Mannor [of Gravesend] called Curia Cursus Aquæ or The Court of the Watercourse for the better Government of Barges Boats and Vessells useing the Ferry or Passage from the Towne of Gravesend to London. |
2. The bed or channel of a river or stream.
| 1566 S'hampton Crt. Leet Rec. (1905) I. i. 36 We present owen symones hathe not mendyd the watter cowrse of hys close by goslen lane. 1679–88 Moneys Secr. Serv. Chas. II & Jas. II (Camden) 88 To scowre the ditches and water⁓courses at Hampton Court, to keep the fowle there. 1725 De Foe Voy. round World (1840) 265 He presently threw out the water, with the sand [etc.]..into the ordinary water⁓course. 1830 Lyell Princ. Geol. I. 401 A want of relation in the position of alluvial beds to the existing watercourses may be no test of the high antiquity of such deposits. 1871 L. Stephen Playgr. Eur. (1894) x. 248 Reaching the valley..by the left bank of the stream, or rather watercourse. |
† 3. ? The flow of water.
Obs.—0| 1552 Huloet, Water course, agmen, inis, (?) quia aqua habet impetum. |
† 4. The fairway or width of water-surface under a bridge.
Obs. rare.
| 1735 J. Price Stone Br. Thames 3 The Space of the Water, or Water-course, will be 600 Feet between the Piers. |
† 5. Anat. a. = aqueduct 3.
b. The hypogastrium.
Obs.| 1615 Crooke Body of Man 222 In the lower belly..because this is easily dilated as the burthen increaseth, and in the lower part of it called the watercourse or Hypogastrium. Ibid. viii. xiv. (1631) 581 The watercourse or darke hole betwixt the Mamillary processe and appendix called Styloides. |