Chapter 1871

Wa"ter thrush` (?) . (Zo\'94l.) (a) A North American bird of the genus Seiurus , belonging to the Warbler family, especially the common species ( S. Noveboracensis ). (b) The European water ousel. (b) The pied wagtail.

Water thyme <Xpage=1633>

Wa"ter thyme` (?) . (Bot.) See Anacharis .

Water tick <Xpage=1633>

Wa"ter tick` (?) . Same as Water mite .

Water tiger <Xpage=1633>

Wa"ter ti"ger (?) . (Zo\'94l.) A diving, or water, beetle, especially the larva of a water beetle. See Illust . b of Water beetle .

Water-tight <Xpage=1633>

Wa"ter-tight` (?) , a. So tight as to retain, or not to admit, water; not leaky.

Water torch <Xpage=1633>

Wa"ter torch` (?) . (Bot.) The common cat-tail ( Typha latifolia ), the spike of which makes a good torch soaked in oil.

Dr. Prior.

Water tower <Xpage=1633>

Wa"ter tow"er (?) . A large metal pipe made to be extended vertically by sections, and used for discharging water upon burning buildings.

<-- 2. A tall water storage tank in the shape of a tower. -->

Water tree <Xpage=1633>

Wa"ter tree` (?) . (Bot.) A climbing shrub ( Tetracera alnifolia, &or; potatoria ) of Western Africa, which pours out a watery sap from the freshly cut stems.

Water trefoil <Xpage=1633>

Wa"ter tre"foil` (?) . (Bot.) The buck bean.

Water tube <Xpage=1633>

Wa"ter tube` (?) . (Zo\'94l.) One of a system of tubular excretory organs having external openings, found in many invertebrates. They are believed to be analogous in function to the kidneys of vertebrates. See Illust . under Trematodea , and Sporocyst .

Water tupelo <Xpage=1633>

Wa"ter tu"pe*lo (?) . (Bot.) A species of large tupelo ( Nyssa aquatica ) growing in swamps in the southern of the United States. See Ogeechee lime .

Water turkey <Xpage=1633>

Wa"ter tur"key (?) . (Zo\'94l.) The American snakebird. See Snakebird .

Water tu tuy\'8are <Xpage=1633>

Wa"ter tu tu`y\'8are" (?) . A tuy\'8are kept cool by water circulating within a casing. It is used for hot blast.

Water tu twist <Xpage=1633>

Wa"ter tu twist` (?) . Yarn made by the throstle, or water frame.

<page="1634"> Page 1634

Water vine <Xpage=1634>

Wa"ter vine` (?) . (Bot.) Any plant of the genus Phytocrene , climbing shrubs of Asia and Africa, the stems of which are singularly porous, and when cut stream with a limpid potable juice.

Water violet <Xpage=1634>

Wa"ter vi"o*let (?) . (Bot.) See under Violet .

Water viper <Xpage=1634>

Wa"ter vi"per (?) . (Zo\'94l.) See Water moccasin .

Water vole <Xpage=1634>

Wa"ter vole` (?) . (Zo\'94l.) See under Vole .

Water wagtail <Xpage=1634>

Wa"ter wag"tail` (?) . See under Wagtail .

Waterway <Xpage=1634>

Wa"ter*way` (?) , n. (Naut.) Heavy plank or timber extending fore and aft the whole length of a vessel's deck at the line of junction with the sides, forming a channel to the scuppers, which are cut through it. In iron vessels the waterway is variously constructed.

Water way <Xpage=1634>

Wa"ter way` . Same as Water course .

Waterweed <Xpage=1634>

Wa"ter*weed` (?) , n. (Bot.) See Anacharis .

Water wheel <Xpage=1634>

Wa"ter wheel` (?) . 1. Any wheel for propelling machinery or for other purposes, that is made to rotate by the direct action of water; -- called an overshot wheel when the water is applied at the top, an undershot wheel when at the bottom, a breast wheel when at an intermediate point; other forms are called reaction wheel , vortex wheel , turbine wheel , etc.

2. The paddle wheel of a steam vessel.

3. A wheel for raising water; a noria, or the like.

Water willow <Xpage=1634>

Wa"ter wil`low (?) . (Bot.) An American aquatic plant ( Dianthera Americana ) with long willowlike leaves, and spikes of small purplish flowers.

Water wing <Xpage=1634>

Wa"ter wing` (?) . (Arch.) One of two walls built on either side of the junction of a bridge with the bank of a river, to protect the abutment of the bridge and the bank from the action of the current.

Water witch <Xpage=1634>

Wa"ter witch` (?) . (Zo\'94l.) (a) The dabchick. (b) The stormy petrel. [Prov. Eng.]

Water-white <Xpage=1634>

Wa"ter-white` (?) , n. (Bot.) A vinelike plant ( Vitis Carib\'91a ) growing in parched districts in the West Indies, and containing a great amount of sap which is sometimes used for quenching thirst.

Waterwork <Xpage=1634>

Wa"ter*work` (?) , n. 1. (Paint.) Painting executed in size or distemper, on canvas or walls, -- formerly, frequently taking the place of tapestry.

Shak. Fairholt.

2. An hydraulic apparatus, or a system of works or fixtures, by which a supply of water is furnished for useful or ornamental purposes, including dams, sluices, pumps, aqueducts, distributing pipes, fountains, etc.; -- used chiefly in the plural.

<-- Water works. The plant and equipment used to purify water for drinking and other purposes, and to supply it to the mains of a town. -->

Waterworn <Xpage=1634>

Wa"ter*worn` (?) , a. Worn, smoothed, or polished by the action of water; as, waterworn stones .

Waterwort <Xpage=1634>

Wa"ter*wort` (?) , n. (Bot.) Any plant of the natural order Elatine\'91 , consisting of two genera ( Elatine , and Bergia ), mostly small annual herbs growing in the edges of ponds. Some have a peppery or acrid taste.

Watery <Xpage=1634>

Wa"ter*y (?) , a. [AS. w\'91terig .]

1. Of or pertaining to water; consisting of water. "The watery god." Dryden . "Fish within their watery residence." Milton .

2. Abounding with water; wet; hence, tearful.

3. Resembling water; thin or transparent, as a liquid; as, watery humors .

The oily and watery parts of the aliment. Arbuthnot.

4. Hence, abounding in thin, tasteless, or insipid fluid; tasteless; insipid; vapid; spiritless.

Watt <Xpage=1634>

Watt (?) , n. [From the distinguished mechanician and scientist, James Watt .] (Physics) A unit of power or activity equal to 10 7 C.G.S. units of power, or to work done at the rate of one joule a second. An English horse power is approximately equal to 746 watts.

Wattmeter <Xpage=1634>

Watt"me`ter (?) , n. [ Watt + meter .] (Physics) An instrument for measuring power in watts, -- much used in measuring the energy of an electric current.

Wattle <Xpage=1634>

Wat"tle (?) , n. [AS. watel , watul , watol , hurdle, covering, wattle; cf. OE. watel a bag. Cf. Wallet .]

1. A twig or flexible rod; hence, a hurdle made of such rods.

And there he built with wattles from the marsh A little lonely church in days of yore. Tennyson.

2. A rod laid on a roof to support the thatch.

3. (Zo\'94l.) (a) A naked fleshy, and usually wrinkled and highly colored, process of the skin hanging from the chin or throat of a bird or reptile. (b) Barbel of a fish.

4. (a) The astringent bark of several Australian trees of the genus Acacia , used in tanning; -- called also wattle bark . (b) (Bot.) The trees from which the bark is obtained. See Savanna wattle , under Savanna .

Wattle turkey . (Zo\'94l.) Same as Brush turkey .

Wattle <Xpage=1634>

Wat"tle , v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Wattled (?) ; p. pr. & vb. n. Wattling (?) .]

1. To bind with twigs.

2. To twist or interweave, one with another, as twigs; to form a network with; to plat; as, to wattle branches .

3. To form, by interweaving or platting twigs.

The folded flocks, penned in their wattled cotes. Milton.

Wattlebird <Xpage=1634>

Wat"tle*bird` (?) , n. 1. (Zo\'94l.) Any one of several species of honey eaters belonging to Anthoch\'91ra and allied genera of the family Meliphagid\'91 . These birds usually have a large and conspicuous wattle of naked skin hanging down below each ear. They are natives of Australia and adjacent islands.

&hand; The best-known species ( Anthoch\'91ra carunculata ) has the upper parts grayish brown, with a white stripe on each feather, and the wing and tail quills dark brown or blackish, tipped with withe. Its wattles, in life, are light blood-red. Called also wattled crow , wattled bee-eater , wattled honey eater . Another species ( A. inauris ) is streaked with black, gray, and white, and its long wattles are white, tipped with orange. The bush wattlebirds, belonging to the genus Anellobia , are closely related, but lack conspicuous wattles. The most common species ( A. mellivora ) is dark brown, finely streaked with white. Called also goruck creeper .

2. (Zo\'94l.) The Australian brush turkey.

Wattled <Xpage=1634>

Wat"tled (?) , a. Furnished with wattles, or pendent fleshy processes at the chin or throat.

The wattled cocks strut to and fro. Longfellow.

Wattling <Xpage=1634>

Wat"tling (?) , n. The act or process of binding or platting with twigs; also, the network so formed.

Made with a wattling of canes or sticks. Dampier.

Waucht, Waught <Xpage=1634>

Waucht , Waught (?) , n. [Cf. Quaff .] A large draught of any liquid. [Scot.]

Jamieson.

Waul <Xpage=1634>

Waul (?) , v. i. [Of imitative origin.] To cry as a cat; to squall; to wail. [Written also wawl .]

The helpless infant, coming wauling and crying into the world. Sir W. Scott.

Waur <Xpage=1634>

Waur (?) , a. [See Worse .] Worse. [Scot.]

Murder and waur than number. Sir W. Scott.

Wave <Xpage=1634>

Wave (?) , v. t. See Wave .

Sir H. Wotton. Burke.

Wave <Xpage=1634>

Wave , v. i. [ imp. & p. p. Waved (?) ; p. pr. & vb. n. Waving .] [OE. waven , AS. wafian to waver, to hesitate, to wonder; akin to w\'91fre wavering, restless, MHG. wabern to be in motion, Icel. vafra to hover about; cf. Icel. v\'befa to vibrate. Cf. Waft , Waver .]

1. To play loosely; to move like a wave, one way and the other; to float; to flutter; to undulate.

His purple robes waved careless to the winds. Trumbull.

Where the flags of three nations has successively waved . Hawthorne.

2. To be moved to and fro as a signal.

B. Jonson.

3. To fluctuate; to waver; to be in an unsettled state; to vacillate. [Obs.]

He waved indifferently 'twixt doing them neither good nor harm. Shak.

Wave <Xpage=1634>

Wave , v. t. 1. To move one way and the other; to brandish. "[\'92neas] waved his fatal sword."

Dryden.

2. To raise into inequalities of surface; to give an undulating form a surface to.

Horns whelked and waved like the enridged sea. Shak.

3. To move like a wave, or by floating; to waft. [Obs.]

Sir T. Browne.

4. To call attention to, or give a direction or command to, by a waving motion, as of the hand; to signify by waving; to beckon; to signal; to indicate.

Look, with what courteous action It waves you to a more removed ground. Shak.

She spoke, and bowing waved Dismissal. Tennyson.

Wave <Xpage=1634>

Wave , n. [From Wave , v. ; not the same word as OE. wawe , waghe , a wave, which is akin to E. wag to move. <?/<?/<?/<?/. See Wave , v. i. ]

1. An advancing ridge or swell on the surface of a liquid, as of the sea, resulting from the oscillatory motion of the particles composing it when disturbed by any force their position of rest; an undulation.

The wave behind impels the wave before. Pope.

2. (Physics) A vibration propagated from particle to particle through a body or elastic medium, as in the transmission of sound; an assemblage of vibrating molecules in all phases of a vibration, with no phase repeated; a wave of vibration; an undulation. See Undulation .

3. Water; a body of water. [Poetic] "Deep drank Lord Marmion of the wave ."

Sir W. Scott.

Build a ship to save thee from the flood, I 'll furnish thee with fresh wave , bread, and wine. Chapman.

4. Unevenness; inequality of surface.

Sir I. Newton.

5. A waving or undulating motion; a signal made with the hand, a flag, etc.

6. The undulating line or streak of luster on cloth watered, or calendered, or on damask steel.

7. Fig.: A swelling or excitement of thought, feeling, or energy; a tide; as, waves of enthusiasm .

Wave front (Physics) , the surface of initial displacement of the particles in a medium, as a wave of vibration advances. -- Wave length (Physics) , the space, reckoned in the direction of propagation, occupied by a complete wave or undulation, as of light, sound, etc.; the distance from a point or phase in a wave to the nearest point at which the same phase occurs. -- Wave line (Shipbuilding) , a line of a vessel's hull, shaped in accordance with the wave-line system. -- Wave-line system , Wave-line theory (Shipbuilding) , a system or theory of designing the lines of a vessel, which takes into consideration the length and shape of a wave which travels at a certain speed. -- Wave loaf , a loaf for a wave offering. Lev. viii. 27 . -- Wave moth (Zo\'94l.) , any one of numerous species of small geometrid moths belonging to Acidalia and allied genera; -- so called from the wavelike color markings on the wings. -- Wave offering , an offering made in the Jewish services by waving the object, as a loaf of bread, toward the four cardinal points. Num. xviii. 11 . -- Wave of vibration (Physics) , a wave which consists in, or is occasioned by, the production and transmission of a vibratory state from particle to particle through a body. -- Wave surface . (a) (Physics) A surface of simultaneous and equal displacement of the particles composing a wave of vibration. (b) (Geom.) A mathematical surface of the fourth order which, upon certain hypotheses, is the locus of a wave surface of light in the interior of crystals. It is used in explaining the phenomena of double refraction. See under Refraction . -- Wave theory . (Physics) See Undulatory theory , under Undulatory .

Waved <Xpage=1634>

Waved (?) , a. 1. Exhibiting a wavelike form or outline; undulating; intended; wavy; as, waved edge .

2. Having a wavelike appearance; marked with wavelike lines of color; as, waved , or watered, silk .

3. (Her.) Having undulations like waves; -- said of one of the lines in heraldry which serve as outlines to the ordinaries, etc.

Waveless <Xpage=1634>

Wave"less (?) , a. Free from waves; undisturbed; not agitated; as, the waveless sea .

Wavelet <Xpage=1634>

Wave"let (?) , n. A little wave; a ripple.

Wavellite <Xpage=1634>

Wa"vel*lite (?) , n. [After Dr. Wm. Wavel , the discoverer.] (Min.) A hydrous phosphate of alumina, occurring usually in hemispherical radiated forms varying in color from white to yellow, green, or black.

Waver <Xpage=1634>

Wa"ver (?) , v. i. [ imp. & p. p. Wavered (?) ; p. pr. & vb. n. Wavering .] [OE. waveren , from AS. w\'91fre wavering, restless. See Wave , v. i. ]

1. To play or move to and fro; to move one way and the other; hence, to totter; to reel; to swing; to flutter.

With banners and pennons wavering with the wind. Ld. Berners.

Thou wouldst waver on one of these trees as a terror to all evil speakers against dignities. Sir W. Scott.

2. To be unsettled in opinion; to vacillate; to be undetermined; to fluctuate; as, to water in judgment .

Let us hold fast . . . without wavering . Heb. x. 23.

In feeble hearts, propense enough before To waver , or fall off and join with idols . Milton.

Syn. -- To reel; totter; vacillate. See Fluctuate .

Waver <Xpage=1634>

Wa"ver , n. [From Wave , or Waver , v. ] A sapling left standing in a fallen wood. [Prov. Eng.]

Halliwell.

Waverer <Xpage=1634>

Wa"ver*er (?) , n. One who wavers; one who is unsettled in doctrine, faith, opinion, or the like.

Shak.

Waveringly <Xpage=1634>

Wa"ver*ing*ly , adv. In a wavering manner.

Waveringness <Xpage=1634>

Wa"ver*ing*ness , n. The quality or state of wavering.

Waveson <Xpage=1634>

Wave"son (?) , n. [From Wave ; cf. Jetsam .] (O. Eng. Law) Goods which, after shipwreck, appear floating on the waves, or sea.

Waveworn <Xpage=1634>

Wave"*worn` (?) , a. Worn by the waves.

The shore that o'er his wave-worn basis bowed. Shak.

Wavey <Xpage=1634>

Wa"vey (?) , n. (Zo\'94l.) The snow goose. [Canadian, & Local U. S.]

Waviness <Xpage=1634>

Wav"i*ness (?) , n. The quality or state of being wavy.

Wavure <Xpage=1634>

Wav"ure (?) , n. See Waivure . [R.]

Wavy <Xpage=1634>

Wav"y (?) , a. 1. Rising or swelling in waves; full of waves. "The wavy seas."

Chapman.

2. Playing to and fro; undulating; as, wavy flames .

Let her glad valleys smile with wavy corn. Prior.

3. (Bot.) Undulating on the border or surface; waved.

Wawaskeesh <Xpage=1634>

Wa*was"keesh (?) , n. [From an Indian name.] (Zo\'94l.) The wapiti, or wapiti, or American elk.

Wave <Xpage=1634>

Wave (?) , n. [See Woe .] Woe. [Obs.]

Wawe <Xpage=1634>

Wawe (?) , n. [OE. wawe , waghe ; cf. Icel. v\'begr ; akin to E. wag ; not the same word as wave .] A wave. [Obs.]

Chaucer. Spenser.

Wawl <Xpage=1634>

Wawl (?) , v. i. See Waul .

Shak.

Wax <Xpage=1634>