Water-drop, subs. phr. (old colloquial).—A tear. Also waterworks = the eyes, the tear-pump: whence to turn on the waterworks = to cry: also see Water, verb 2.
1605. Shakspeare, Lear, ii. 4. 280. Let not women's weapons, water-drops, Stain my man's cheeks.
1857. Hughes, Tom Brown's Schooldays, ii. 5. Sneaking little brute . . . clapping on the waterworks just in the hardest place.
Waterfall, subs. (various).—1. A
neckcloth, scarf, or tie with long
pendant ends. Also (2) a chignon:
spec. a fringe of hair falling down
the neck under the chignon.
1824. Ferrier, Inheritance, i. xi. A drooping fall of Foyers-looking neckcloth.
1861. Hughes, Tom Brown at Oxford, ii. iii. A gaudy figured satin waistcoat, and waterfall of the same material.
1880. Whitney, Leslie Goldthwaite, iii. The brown silk net . . . had given way all at once into a great hole under the waterfall, and the soft hair would fret itself through, and threaten to stray untidily.
Water-funk, subs. phr. (school).—A
boy shy of water: either in
the way of personal cleanliness or
aquatics.
1900. Kipling, Stalky and Co., 68. King scowled. 'One of you was that thing called a water-funk. So now you wish to wash? It is well. Cleanliness never injured a boy, or—a house.'
Water-gunners (The), subs.
phr. (military).—The Royal
Marines.
Wateries (The), subs. phr. (common).—The
Naval Exhibition at
South Kensington: cf. Fisheries,
Colinderies, etc.
Waterings. St. Thomas à
Waterings (old).—A place of
execution (for Surrey as Tyburn
(q.v.) for Middlesex) situated at
the second milestone on the road
from London to Canterbury. Like
Beggar's-bush, Weeping-cross,
Clapham, etc., the place-name
was the basis of many a
quibbling allusion and much conventional
wit. [At this point is
a brook, probably a place for
watering horses, whence its
name; dedicated, of course, to
St. Thomas à Becket, being the
first place of any note in the
pilgrimage to his shrine.]
1383. Chaucer, Cant. Tales, Prol. v. 827. And forth we riden a litel more than pas [little more than a foot's pace]. Unto the watering of seint Thomas, And ther our hoste began his hors arest.
. . . Hycke Scorner [Hawkins, Orig. of Drama, i. 105]. For at saynt Thomas of Watrynge an they stryke a sayle, Than they must ryde in the haven of hepe [hempe] without fayle.
1607. Puritan, i. 1. Alas! a small matter bucks a handkerchief! and sometimes the 'spital stands too nigh St. Thomas à Waterings. [That is, 'A little matter will serve to wet a handkerchief; and sometimes shedding too many tears will bring a person to the hospital'; that is, 'will produce sickness.']
16[?]. Owle's Almanacke, 55. A faire paire of gallowes is kept at Tiburne, from yeares end to yeares end: and the like faire (but not so much resort of chapmen and crack-ropes) is at St. Thomas à Waterings.
1630. Jonson, New Inn, i. 3. To which, if he apply him, He may perhaps take a degree at Tyburn, A year the earlier, come to read a lecture Upon Aquinas, at St. Thomas à Watering's, And so go forth a laureat in hemp circle.
1786. [Carey, Map of 15 miles round London. We have at the two mile-stone on the Kent road, Watering's Bridge, a remnant of the old name.]
Water-language, subs. phr. (old).—Jocose
abuse, chaff (q.v.).
