▪ I. ˈwater-mark, watermark, n.
[mark n.1 Cf. G. wassermarke in various senses.]
† 1. Sc. A boundary mark indicating the line of separation between the waters of different rivers (belonging to different proprietors). Obs.
| 1632 Reg. Mag. Sig. Scot. 652/2 Cum signis fluvialibus lie water markis intra aquas de Done et Loquhell. 1637 Ibid. 266/2 Cum molendino, maneriei loco, signis fluvialibus lie water-merkis inter aquas de Done et Loquhell. |
2. The line (whether actually marked or not) forming the limit to which the tide, or the water of a river, well, flood, etc., has risen or usually rises. Cf. high-water mark, low-water mark.
| 1678 Dryden All for Love i. i, Men and Beasts Were born above the tops of Trees, that grew On th' utmost Margin of the Water-mark. 1751 Act 24 Geo. II, c. 8, §16 Till the Water is sunk below the Watermark. c 1820 S. Rogers Italy, Gondola 79 Those hundred Isles..That rise abruptly from the water-mark. 1889 Hardwicke's Sci.-Gossip XXV. 125 Plunging through the sand we hope to find something on the water-mark. |
| fig. 1896 E. A. King Ital. Highways 62 The water⁓mark above which it is undesirable that any woman's knowledge shall rise. |
3. A mark left by a flood.
| 1822 J. Flint Lett. fr. Amer. 122 A watermark on the beach showed that the Ohio had lately risen to the height of fourteen or fifteen feet. 1883 G. C. Davies Norfolk Broads ii. 14 Bright green reeds eight feet high, with a yellow water⁓mark on their lower stems. |
4. The line showing the draught of a ship.
| 1764 [J. Burton] Pres. St. Navig. Thames 36 The Gauger should first affix on the Side the Water-mark of 3 Feet Draught. 1858 Simmonds Dict. Trade, Water-mark,..the float-line or sinking depth of a ship. 1883 W. C. Russell Sailors' Lang., Water-marks, the figures on a ship's stern showing the depth of water she draws. |
5. a. A distinguishing mark or device impressed in the substance of a sheet of paper during manufacture, usually barely noticeable except when the sheet is held against strong light.
So G. wassermarke (1785); the more common word is now wasserzeichen (zeichen sign). The name was prob. given because the water-mark, being less opaque than the rest of the paper, had the appearance of having been produced by the action of water.
| 1708 Hearne Collect. 11 Mar. (O.H.S.) II. 98 Has sent specimens of old paper (for water-marks &c.). 1779 Gentl. Mag. XLIX. 374/1 He [Mathison] had discovered a method of counterfeiting the water-mark of the bank paper. 1787 Fenn Orig. Lett. I. Pref. p. xxi. note, The paper-marks are those figures formed by wires, on the sieve at the bottom of the mould in which the paper is made, and are impressed on it in its pulpy state... They are often called the water-marks. 1870 E. Peacock Ralf Skirl. II. 237 It showed a water-mark of a lion standing upright. 1913 F. W. Cornish Jane Austen x. 226 As the water-marks in the original manuscript are 1803 and 1804 it could not have been written before that time. |
b. The metal design from which the impression is made.
| 1854 C. Tomlinson Obj. Art-Manuf., Paper 22 The singular names of the older kinds of paper appear to have some connection with the devices formed in them by the water-marks. Water-marks are ornamental figures in wire or thin brass, sewn upon the wires of the mould, and like those wires, they leave an impression, by rendering the paper where it lies on them, thinner and more translucent. |
6. watermark disease, a disease of the cricket-bat willow, Salix alba var. cœrulea, caused by the bacterium Erwinia salicis and producing dying-back in the crown of the tree and stains in the wood.
| 1924 W. R. Day in Oxf. Forestry Mem. III. (title) The watermark disease of the cricket-bat willow. 1950 Q. Jrnl. Forestry XLIV. 106 Watermark disease of the cricket bat willow..spreads rapidly both upwards and downwards in the wood vessels. 1976 Eastern Even. News (Norwich) 9 Dec. 15/4 This was to cut the cost of services for an inspector on ‘watermark disease’ of willow trees. |
▪ II. ˈwater-mark, v.
[f. prec. n.]
1. trans. To mark or stamp with a watermark.
| 1866: see water-marked ppl. a. 1889 W. Lockhart in Athenæum 16 Mar. 345/1 The Chinese..for a long time past have had the art of water-marking paper. 1895 Westm. Gaz. 30 Apr. 7/2 A number of forged Bank of France notes were submitted, watermarked 1,000 francs. |
2. To embody as a watermark.
| 1889 Century Mag. Nov. 94/2 The volumes..are without the final refinement of the recurring title water-marked in the lower margins of the page. |
Hence ˈwater-marked ppl. a.; ˈwater-marking vbl. n. (also attrib.).
| 1866 Rogers Agric. & Prices I. 644 Wired and water-marked paper is found soon afterwards [c1350]. 1896 Daily News 4 June 7/7 The method of watermarking must not be forgotten. 1897 Ibid. 10 July 8/3 All the dies and water-marking plates are here designed, and made for the Bank Notes, Postal Orders,..and other papers requiring a water-mark. 1913 Q. Rev. Apr. 401 All these have been tried, and, with the exception of the water-marking, wholly given up. |