low-ˈwater-mark
The line or level reached by the tide at low-water; a mark set up to indicate this. (Cf. high-water-mark.)
| 1526 in Dillon Customs of Pale (1892) 87 Anie wrak rivinge or drivinge in the sea without the Lowe water marke. 1629 H. C. Drayning Fennes C ij, When the out-fals shall bee opened to Low water marke. 1776 G. Semple Building in Water 2, 2 Inches above the Low-water Mark... 8 Inches above Low-water Mark. 1783 Page in Phil. Trans. LXXIV. 16 It continued in vast quantity almost to the spring tide low-water-mark. 1880 Geikie Phys. Geog. iii. §17. 154 The lower limit of the beach or low-water mark. |
b. fig. The lowest point reached in number, quality, quantity, intensity, etc.
| 1651 N. Bacon Disc. Govt. Eng. ii. xxxvii. (1739) 167 The state of Learning and Holiness was now at the low-water mark. 1745 H. Walpole Lett. (1846) II. 9 My ink is at low water-mark for all my acquaintance. 1838 Dickens O. Twist viii, I'm at low-water-mark myself—only one bob and a magpie. 1890 Spectator 29 Mar., Destroying the truths of which most social conventions are the low-water mark. |