Green’s Dictionary of Slang

to cry.

1836		T. Haliburton Clockmaker I 108: Folks said Mr. Adams was a very tender-hearted man. Perhaps he was, but I guess that eye didn’t pump its water.
1901		H. Lawson ‘Send Round the Hat’ in Roderick (1972) 476: Those girls are only working you for all you’re worth [...] They can pump water at a moment’s notice.

(Aus.) a fanatical teetotaller.

1900–10		Stephens & O’Brien Materials for a Dict. of Aus. Sl. [unpub. ms.] 164: WATER-BAG: bush slang a teetotaller or temperance advocate.
1941		Baker Popular Dict. Aus. Sl.
1955		N. Pulliam I Travelled a Lonely Land (1957) 241/2: water bag – a teetotaler.

the stomach.

1841

‘Bet Farrell’ in Gentleman’s Spicey Songster 38: Have you ever heard of Bet Farrell [...] Concerning of her water barrel, / Which caused such a deuce of a row.

weak tea, punch or any other liquor.

1672		Broadside against Coffee 1: This canting Coffee has his Crew enricht, / And both the Water and the Men bewicht.
1678		J. Ray Proverbs (2nd edn) 84: Water bewitch’t. i.e. very thin beer.
1722		‘Whipping-Tom’ Expensive Use of Drinking Tea I 17: I found the Use of ’em was only to sweeten Water bewitch’d with a Lump of Loaf-Sugar.
1725		Bailey (trans.) Erasmus’ Colloquies 533: As for the Broth, it was nothing but a little Water bewitch’d.
1738		Swift Polite Conversation 13: Your Ladyship is very sparing of your Tea; I protest, the last Dish I took, was no more than Water bewitch’d.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1829		Sheffield Indep. 12 Dec. 1/3: Perhaps this custom gave rise to the vulgar term water bewitched for indifferent beer.
1834		Marryat Jacob Faithful I 208: None of your water bewitched.
1840		R.H. Dana Two Years Before the Mast (1992) 46: We were allowed a tin pot full of hot tea (or, as the sailors significantly call it, water bewitched), sweetened with molasses.
1856		Westmorland Gaz. 5 July 6/4: She has omitted to put in fresh tea [...] after growing gradually weaker what she gives us to-day is no better than ‘water bewitched’.
1867		W.H. Smyth Sailor’s Word-Bk (1991) 721: Water-Bewitched. Bad tea [...] 5-water grog, and the like greatly diluted drinks.
1873		Sl. Dict. 336: Water-bewitched very weak tea, the third brew (or the first at some houses.) Sometimes very weak tea is called ‘husband’s tea,’ in allusion to the wife taking the first brew, and leaving the rest for her husband.
1878		Star (Guernsey) 11 June 2/6: The water bewitched, misnamed soup, of a so-called plain cook.
1883		W.C. Russell Sailors’ Lang. xii: Tea is ‘water bewitched.’.
1891		Dly Gaz. for Middlesborough 13 May 3/4: Poor people, in illness, often had only milk to exist on, and if they got only water bewitched they would die.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 93: Water Bewitched, liquor diluted with a great deal of water.
1903		J. London People of the Abyss 75: It resembled tea less than lager beer resembles champagne. Nay, it was ‘water-bewitched,’ and did not resemble tea at all.
1907		J. London Road 98: There was one good thing, I must say, about the water — it was hot. In the morning it was called ‘coffee,’ at noon it was dignified as ‘soup,’ and at night it masqueraded as ‘tea.’ But it was the same old water all the time. The prisoners called it ‘water bewitched.’.
1930		Western Morn. News (Devon) 1 July 7/4: What They Say in the West [...] Water bewitched and tea begrudged (weak tea).

a river policeman.

1902

H. Baumann Londinismen (2nd edn).

see tea bomb under tea n.

a ‘cry-baby’.

1911

J.W. Horsley Memoirs of a ‘Sky Pilot’ 254: Other [words] were new to me, such as [...] ‘water bonse’ for a cry baby .

1. the penis [its urinary function].

c.1650

Le Strange Merry Passages and Jeasts No. 125 46: He resolvd, having a winter boote on with an huge large toppe, to force his instrument downward and discharge all into that. [She] in the midst of his careere, catching him suddainly by the Arme [...] with that, his water-bottle spring up, and all besprinkled the table and the opposite company, to the excessive laughter of all.

2. a total abstainer, a teetotaller.

1909

J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era.

the vagina.

1653		Urquhart (trans.) Gargantua and Pantagruel (1927) I Bk I 51: I would have cleft her water-gap, / And join’d it close to my flip-flap.
1660		‘Peter Aretine’ Strange and True Newes 4: That none of this Society discover the Manner and Customes to any but the Society [...] on pain of having their water-gapes stopt, and their A— sew’d up.
1675		C. Cotton Scoffer Scoff’d (1765) 238: He had through Venus’ Water-Gap / Stuck a Bull’s Feather in his Cap.
1707		N. Ward Wooden World 52: He [...] is acquainted with the Nature and Depths of all Soundings, but that of his Wife’s Water-Course.
1787		Harris’s List of Covent-Garden Ladies 38: She very readily displays her naked charms, and willingly exhibits Eve’s water gap, without a single fig-leaf.
1980		Maledicta IV:2 (Winter) 182: We have recognised the effects of the flow of this letchwater by referring to the lady’s water-box, -course, -gap, -gate [...], -engine, -works or -mill.

1. (US) a useless boxer who accepts money to lose fights.

1960, 1975

Wentworth & Flexner DAS 569/2: waterman n. = waterboy [i.e. ‘an inept prize fighter’].

2. by ext., an informer.

1956

H. Ellison ‘Johnny Slice’s Stoolie’ in Deadly Streets (1983) 81: Somebody put up a case with me as water-boy.

(US campus) to vomit.

1989

P. Munro Sl. U. 202: You yakked, you bisoned, you water buffaloed!

(Aus.) a cook.

1957		J. Greenway ‘Australian Cattle Lingo’ in AS XXXIII:3 165: doughie, sod maker, water burner n. A cook.
1986		R. Beckett Dinkum Aussie Dict. 56: Water burner: A bush or shearer’s cook.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl.

weeping; also attrib.

1836–7		Dickens Pickwick Papers (1999) 217: ‘Come, come,’ interposed Sam, who had witnessed Mr Trotter’s tears with considerable impatience, ‘blow this ’ere water-cart bis’ness.’ [Ibid.] 608: I’m wery much mistaken if that ’ere Jingle worn’t a-doin’ somethin’ in the water-cart way!
1854		F. Smedley Harry Coverdale’s Courtship 104: The women did the water-cart business in style – where all the tears comes from I can’t think.

the vagina .

1836

‘The Plumber’s Ball Cock’ in Gentleman’s Private Songster in Spedding & Watt (eds) Bawdy Songbooks (2011) III 364: There was in London town, a lovely lady fair, / Whose water-closet was in very bad repair.

(UK Und.) girls’ virginities, maidenheads.

c.1850

Duncombe New and Improved Flash Dict.

a Norfolk dumpling, a plain dumpling made from bread dough.

1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1880		Bulletin (Sydney) 21 Feb. 3/4: Let us hope that the right rev. gentleman will never have to manufacture for himself, or anyone else, even a billy of tea, a damper, a ‘Johnny-cake,’ or a ‘water dog.’.

see washer-dona n.

the urinary organs, irrespective of gender.

1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
1980		Maledicta IV:2 (Winter) 182: We have recognised the effects of the flow of this letchwater by referring to the lady’s water-box, [...], -engine, -works or -mill.

1. pubic hair.

1837

‘The Chapter of Smutty Toasts’ in Icky-Wickey Songster 9: Here’s the pleasant placed waterfall.

2. a neckcloth, scarf or tie with long pendant ends.

1848		J.H. Newman letter 3 Sept. in Letters and Diaries (1962) XII 268: He [...] looks a striking man in his Jesuit dress, though what his cut may be with a French coat and satin waterfall I can’t tell [OED].
1861		T. Hughes Tom Brown at Oxford (1880) 280: A gaudy figured satin waistcoat, and waterfall of the same material.

3. false hair.

1865		‘Artemus Ward’ Among the Mormons in Complete Works (1922) 306: I larfed at my wife’s waterfall, which indoosed that superior woman to take it off and heave it at me rather vilently.
1867		Hamilton Spectator (Melbourne) 27 July 1/6: The new slang word, ‘Waterfall,’ applied to the mass of false hair worn by fast ladies, is said by the London Review to be an Americanism.
1868		M.M. Pomeroy Nonsense 41: My waterfall had got under my left ear, making me look as if some ugly man of sin had lifted me one with brass knuckles.
1919		D.L. Cady Rhymes of Vermont (2008) 259: He’d [...] comb and braid a lady’s switch Or steam her ‘waterfall.’.
1922		‘I Love Somebody’ in T.W. Talley Negro Folk Rhymes 51: Wid her reddingoat an’ waterfall, / She’s de pretty liddle gal dat beats ’em all.

one who is afraid to go into water.

1899

Kipling ‘An Unsavoury Interlude’ Complete Stalky & Co. 74: King scowled. ‘One of you was that thing called a water-funk. So now you wish to wash?’.

see waterbox

the vagina when wet with sexual excitement.

1560		E. More Schole House of Women Diii: Salamon sayth, thre thynges there be Seldom, or neuer saturate. Hell the fyrste is of the thre The seconde a womans water gate The grounde of water insacyate.
1594		Gesta Grayorum (1688) 19: Three hundred able and sufficient labouring Men, with Instruments and Tools necessary for the making clean [...] all manner of Ponds, Puddles, Dams, Springs, Locks, [...] Water-gates.
1624		Middleton Game at Chess II i: Yet there’s no eminent trader deals in hole-sale But she and I have clapped a bargain up, Let in at watergate, for which I’ve racked My tenant’s purse-strings that they’ve twanged again.
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
1896		Farmer Vocabula Amatoria (1966) 209: Pertuis, m. [...] 2. The female pudendum; ‘the water-gate.’.
1980		Maledicta IV:2 (Winter) 182: We have recognised the effects of the flow of this letchwater by referring to the lady’s water-box, -course, -gap, -gate [...], -engine, -works or -mill.

a foolish person.

1961		T. Taylor Baron’s Court All Change (2011) 89: ‘We’re a load of water heads and worriers’.
1962		S. Longstreet Flesh Peddlers (1964) 48: At COK there were various ways of labeling clients [...] In descending order there were the creep, kook, screwball, shathead, crum-bum and waterhead.
1982		Eble Campus Sl. Fall 5: waterhead – a loser.

see watery-headed adj.

see watering hole n.

(mid-17C) the vagina.

1661

Mercurius Democritus 22 May 5: Have a care lest a green gown-a do spoyl your Water-Kettle .

(UK Und.) an oyster.

c.1850

Duncombe New and Improved Flash Dict.

very drunk.

1923

J. Manchon Le Slang.

1. see waterboy

2. see also separate entries.

the vagina.

1656		in Ebsworth Choyce Drollery (1876) 51: Sweet-heart thou hast a water-mill, And these [i.e. the thighs] are the mill-posts.
1660		Ladies Champion 8: [Marriage is] but two pair of legs in one pair of sheets, with a windmil and watermil, from whence comes no grist vendible.
1661		Mercurius Democritus 22 May 6: If this be the scowring Irons to invirone my pelting-Irons with your Water-mill, you shall scowre no more for me.
1673		J. Wade Vinegar and Mustard B2: You could not stay lest you should want water to grind with, but you did grind in your own water mill.
c.1697		‘The Crafty Country Woman’ in Ebsworth Bagford Ballads (1878) I 34: But the Baker ground his Corn we hear / in a Woman’s Water-mill.
1763		J.Wilkes Essay on Woman 23: The Water-mills against the Wind-mills for ever; and a fart for the a posteriori men.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum n.p.: Water-mill A woman’s private parts.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
1980		Maledicta IV:2 (Winter) 182: We have recognised the effects of the flow of this letchwater by referring to the lady’s water-box, [...], -engine, -works or -mill.

a thief who specializes in robbing ships on the River Thames.

c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Water-pad c. one that Robbs Ships in the Thames.
1725		New Canting Dict. n.p.: water-pad one that robs Ships, Hoys, Lighters, Barges or Boats in the River of Thames. The Sixty-third Rank of Villains.
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. 1725].
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
a.1790		H.T. Potter New Dict. Cant (1795).
1809		G. Andrewes Dict. Sl. and Cant.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1835		G. Kent Modern Flash Dict.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open.

the penis.

1972

B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular.

an umbrella.

1830

Egan Finish to the Adventures of Tom and Jerry (1889) 309: To my out-and-out friend and companion, Corinthian Tom, I give my spread, my summer-cabbage, my water-plant, but more generally understood as my umbrella.

the vagina.

1683

London Jilt pt 2 18: There had never been any dabling in our Water-Pots, without my Husband’s knowing it.

1. a pirate.

1596		Shakespeare Merchant of Venice I iii: There be land-rats and water-rats, land thieves and water thieves, – I mean pirates.
1602		Rowlands Greene’s Ghost Haunting Coniecatchers E3: Another fraternity, viz. Water-rats .
1830		N. Ames Mariner’s Sketches 195: A terrible cock and bull story about their ship having been taken by a pirate [...] We were [...] volunteering to [....] bring in this ‘salt water rat’ by the ears.
1877		G. Bunster in Wkly Times (Melbourne) 8 Sept. 9/2: He had [...] ventured his life, in the disguise of a ‘water rat,’ amongst the long-shore river pirates of Bankside and Bermondsey.

2. a sergeant in the Thames River Police.

1894		H. Nevinson ‘The St. George of Rochester’ in Keating Working Class Stories of the 1890s (1971) 57: At last a perlice boat with two black-beetles and a water-rat as we calls the Thames perlice and a sergeant, they pick me up.
1937		E. Raymond Marsh 408: Yah! Two black beetles and a water-rat. Out to prevent some poor blokes pickin’ up a bit of a livin’.

3. (Ulster) a customs officer.

1995

M. Ryan et al. No Shoes in Summer n.p.: Each child paraded in fairy dress. I wonder does Cathal Gamble remember being a Water Rat (Customsman) with white uniform cap and real car .

a doctor who diagnoses on the basis of a patient’s urine.

1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (3rd edn).
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.

a thief who works on a river.

1807		H. Tufts Autobiog. (1930) 293: Water sneak signifies breaking into a vessel.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum n.p.: Water Sneaksman. A man who steals from ships or craft on the river.
1812		Vaux Vocab. of the Flash Lang. in McLachlan (1964) 278: water-sneak robbing ships or vessels on a navigable river, or canal, by getting on board unperceived , generally in the night. The water-sneak is lately made a capital offence.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.

urolagnia, urinating on a partner for sexual stimulation.

1972		B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 98: water sports (kwn SF, SM sl, late ’60s) urolagnia, erotic interest given to urine.
1977		B. Judell ‘Sexual Anarchy’ in Blue Boy (Miami) Aug.–Sept. in Jay & Young (1979) 135: The fuck bar seems to be reaching its high noon of popularity and notoriety [...] What goes on in such a place? [...] one can witness and experience cocksucking, regular and fist fucking, water sports, gang bangs, sadomasochism, beer slurping, gum chewing, masturbation, group sex.
1980		A. Maupin More Tales of the City (1984) 51: Water sports. She was real famous for it. [...] She tinkled on them.
1986–7		Maledicta IX 159: Now we must turn to the piddling nuisances of what is often called W/S (water sports or the erotic games of golden shower queens with urine).
1991		C. Fletcher Pure Cop 90: There’s water sports: golden showers, brown showers.
2003		K. Cage Gayle 103/1: WS (abbr.) water sports [Classified advertisements]. water sports n. activity where sex involves either being urinated on or urinating on a partner (frequently abbr. to WS in classified advertisements).
2010		W. Ings ‘Trolling the Beat to Working the Soob’ in Int’l Jrnl Lexicog. 23:1 74: ‘I dnt bttm for knky fun eva. I do ws,f,tt, cb. nt n2 receiving pain’. Translated this means: I don’t receive anal sex. I offer water sex, fisting, tit torture, cock and ball torture, but I am not into receiving pain.

(Aus.) a priest; a clergyman.

1900

Bulletin (Sydney) 14 Apr. 12/4: However it be, the pair are alleged by the priest to be ‘living in sin,’ and are a ‘public scandal.’ You can guess how the water-sprinklers of the parish are discussing the case. Their prayers were exhorted for the alleged ‘unhappy’ sinners that they may come back to grace.

see spout n.³ (1)

see separate entry.

see wagtail n.

see separate entry.

(orig. US) to defeat comprehensively, to overwhelm.

1952		W.R. Burnett Vanity Row 216: ‘You have to take care of him now. He could blow us right out of the water, and nobody knows it better than he does’.
1989		C. Hiaasen Skin Tight 189: Otherwise we’re blown out of the water.
2007		C. Goffard Snitch Jacket 9: It’s our chance to blow the case out of the water.

see under draw v.⁴

(US) to get over-excited, to lose one’s temper.

1948

N. Mailer Naked and Dead 163: You got yore water hot. Jus’ don’ push me around.

(US) to pressurize, to intimidate.

1930		H. Hart ‘Papa’s Got Your Bath Water On’ 🎵 I’m going to make you wish you never had been born / I just went uptown, got my gun out of pawn / Don’t start nothing baby, because your papa’s got your bath water on.
1936		Lil Johnson ‘New Shave ’Em Dry’ 🎵 I’m gonna tell you-all women and please understand / Don’t start no three-six-nine with my man / ‘Cause if you do you’ll surely get down [?] wrong / I got a forty-four that puts your waters on.
1958		E. Gilbert Vice Trap 55: He’s got your water on already for fencing that stuff. You’re in his pocket.

see go in the tank under tank n.¹

(Aus.) to rush, to be in a very great hurry.

1945		Baker Aus. Lang. 89: To go through without the waterbag, to be in a great hurry.
1955		N. Pulliam I Travelled a Lonely Land (1957) 233/2: go through without the water bag – be in a great hurry.

1. to be patient, to remain calm; esp. in imper. hold your water! calm down!

[1664		C. Cotton Virgil Travestie (1765) Bk IV 72: She’s much ado to hold her Water; / And counsel’d in that tempting Strain, / I wonder how she could contain].
1912		R.W. Brown ‘Word-List From Western Indiana’ in DN III:viii 578: hold one’s water, v. phr. To be patient [...] ‘Now, Willie, you just hold your water till the rest of us are ready to go.’.
1937		D. Fuchs Low Company 43: Hold your water [...] What’s burning on you?
1947		I. Shulman Amboy Dukes 159: ‘Hold your water,’ Frank warned.
1955		B. Schulberg On the Waterfront (1964) 132: Okay, okay, hold ya water.
1957		(con. 1944) A. Myrer Big War 242: ‘When the hell are we going to get the show on the road?’ Klumanski turned around. ‘Hold your urine, Jack. You’ll get there soon enough.’.
1964		H. Selby Jr Last Exit to Brooklyn 239: Vinnie [...] yelled out to Mary ta fix breakfast and she said ta hold his watta.
1977		‘John le Carré’ Honourable Schoolboy 151: The word is well done and hold your water.
2002		D.H. Sterry Chicken (2003) 180: Hold your water, boy. You gotta eat foist.

2. to maintain silence under pressure, e.g. from the authorities.

2010		(con. 1973) C. Stella Johnny Porno 121: He was scared enough [...] But Berg held his water, there’s no deny that.
2012		C. Stella Rough Riders 18: You gotta admit, a lot more guys are making deals than holding their water.

(Aus.) (of temperature) exceedingly hot; preceded by a figure often exaggerated or speculative.

1884		Terowie Enterprise (SA) 24 Oct. 2/4: [F]or the encouragement of aspiring new comers it may be stated on the veracity of an old Barrier resident (and that’s a thing not to be doubted) that we may look forward with hope to seeing the glass up to 140 in the water bag before the summer is out.
1897		Molong Argus (NSW) 19 Mar. 1/5: [T]he next landing-place is very warm, being considerably over 200 degrees in the water-bag.
1911		Leader (Orange) 14 Jan.3/2: Whenever they are stuck for something to say, in order to break a painful silence, they will probably venture the remark ‘Nice Day’ when it is either snowing or 120 in the water bag.
1923		Worker (Brisbane) 15 Mar. 12/1: The day had been one of those stifling summer days, a cloudless sky, 160 degrees in the water bag and 120 in the shade.
1965		J. O’Grady Aussie Eng. (1966) 73: You wear a heavy suit with a tie when the thermometer registers ‘over a hundred in the water bag’ .
1972		J. O’Grady It’s Your Shout, Mate! 72: ‘Stinkin’ bloody hot, she was. About a hundred an’ ten in the water bag’.
1980		S. Thorne I’ve Met Some Bloody Wags! 11: It was stinking hot - at least 43°C in the waterbag.
1986		R. Beckett Dinkum Aussie Dict. n.p.: Thirty-seven degrees in the water bag: A hot day. One of the few successful translations from the imperial to the metric measurement of temperature, indicating that the liquid in the canvas water bag is at blood heat.

(US) in debt.

1992

Bentley & Corbett Prison Sl. 15: Out in the Water In debt.

1. (US) to back down.

1882		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 10 June 2/3: [A]s for journalistic knowledge and experence, the corps of this paper ‘takes water’ for no paper [...] in the country.
1893		Sportsman (Melbourne) 10 Jan. 3/1: Joe [...] made an offer to Stop Fitz in Four Rounds without training a day, and counted out £100 as a forfeit to make good a match for £1000. O’Malley [...] could only produce to 8s., so this ardent follower of Fitz had to ‘take water.’ Joe is a hard one to bluff.
1904		N.Y. Tribune 12 June 6/2: No man has ever seen P.C. Knox ‘take water’ [...] or back down from any position.
1913		J. London Valley of the Moon (1914) 54: Any other man to take water the way he did from Butch – why, everybody’d despise him. [Ibid.] 63: Charley Long had taken water. He had been afraid of this smooth-skinned, blue-eyed boy.

2. (Aus.) to leave a bar or public house after spending all one’s cash on drink.

1900–10		Stephens & O’Brien Materials for a Dict. of Aus. Sl. [unpub. ms.] 142: TAKE WATER: shearing and bush slang to leave an hotel after a spree or burst ‘dead broke.’.
1941		Baker Popular Dict. Aus. Sl.

1. gin.

1820		Jack Randall’s Diary 40: Erin, be proud of the boy you have got, And toast his sweet name in the water of life.
1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. (2nd edn).

2. (US drugs) any drug.

1935

A.J. Pollock Und. Speaks n.p.: Water of life, dope.