eyewater
(ˈaɪwɔːtə(r))
[f. eye n. + water n.]
a. Water, i.e. either natural tears, or an abnormal overflow (stillicidium), ‘tear in the eye’, flowing from the eye. Rare in pl. b. A lotion for the eye. c. The humours (aqueous or vitreous) of the eye. d. slang. = Gin.
| a. 1590 Southwell M. Magd. Fun. Teares 125 What anger so fiery that may not be quenched with eye-water, sith a weeping supplyant rebateth the edge of more than a lyon's fury. 1845 G. Murray Islaford 169 To roll Sorrow's eye-waters from their dark abode. 1849 Thackeray Lett. 50, I can hardly see as I write for the eye-water, but it isn't with grief. |
| b. 1679 Plot Staffordsh. (1686) 106 All sorts of Eye⁓waters, such as that of Elder well. 1747 Wesley Prim. Physic (1762) 61 An excellent Eye Water. 1818 S. F. Gray Supp. to Pharmacopœias 237 Common eye water. Ibid. 235 Blue eye water. 1841–4 Emerson Ess. Ser. i. vii. (1876) 190 Love is not a hood, but an eye-water. |
| c. 1874 Coues Field Ornith. i. vii. (1890) 57 Eye-water..is often a great annoyance [in taxidermy]. |
| d. 1869 G. J. Whyte-Melville M. or N. I. vi. 118 Two bob an' a bender, and a three of eye-water, in? 1886 Judy 4 Aug. 58 Jiggered gin, dog's nose and Paddy's eye-water. |