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 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.).