water

I

(New American Roget's College Thesaurus)

A clear liquid and major component of all living things

Nouns

1. water, moisture, wetness; drinking water, spring water, mineral water; sea or salt water, fresh water; serum, serosity; lymph; rheum; diluent; dilution, maceration, lotion; washing, immersion, infiltration, infusion, irrigation; douche, bath, hot tub, Jacuzzi; baptism, rain, deluge, spate, flood, high water, flood tide; balneology, limnology. Informal, Adam's ale, hobo cocktail. See fluidity, cleanness.

2. (collections of water)

a. river, water system, waterway, stream, beck, tributary, branch, fork, creek, kill, brook, watercourse, bayou, spring, fount, fountain, rill, rivulet, streamlet, runnel, [dis]tributary, feeder; channel, swash, canal, cutoff, seaway, sound, strait, euripus (see passage); riverbed, wadi, arroyo; torrent, rapids, flood, freshet; current, tide, race.

b. waterfall, falls, cascade, linn; cataract; jet, Niagara; rapids, white water, shoot, chute; fountain, geyser, [water]spout.

c. gulf, bay, cove, inlet, ria, harbor, arm (of the sea), estuary, reach, firth, fiord.

d. ocean, sea, great sea, high seas; the seven seas, [North or South] Atlantic, [North or South] Pacific, Indian, Arctic or Antarctic Ocean; mare nostrum; Mediterranean, Arabian, Caribbean, etc. sea; salt water, deep water, blue water; the [bounding] main, the [briny] deep; the Seven Seas, the frozen seas; the billow, wave, tide, or flood; the deep blue sea, wine-dark sea, Davy Jones's locker; Father Neptune, Poseidon; the watery waste; tidal basin, tide pool, tidewater, tideway; lake, salt lake, loch (Scot.), lough (Irish), nyanza, lagoon, laguna, [mill]pond, pool, tarn, lakelet, mere, puddle, water hole; polynya; undertow.

e. marsh, swamp (see moisture).

f. well, cistern, tank; reservoir, dam.

3. rain, rainfall, precipitation; cloudburst, downpour; thunderstorm;

shower, drizzle; rainstorm, monsoon, rainy season; deluge, flood, inundation, spate, torrent, cataclysm.

4. (water current) wave, billow, surge, swell, ripple, rollers, surf, breakers, heavy sea; undercurrent, eddy, vortex, whirlpool, maelstrom; waterspout; jet, spurt, squirt, spout; splash, plash; rush, gush, sluice. Slang, rhino, tube, zipper, hair ball, hollow wave, wacker, green monster, quaker.

5. (water as energy) hydraulics, hydrodynamics, hydrology, hydrokinetics, hydrostatics, hydroponics.

Verbs

1. be watery; be awash or afloat; swim (in), brim.

2. water, wet; moisten; dilute; dip, immerse, submerge, plunge, souse, douse, dunk, duck, drown; go under; drench, soak, steep, macerate, pickle; wash, sprinkle, lave, bathe, splash; slop; irrigate, inundate, deluge; syringe, douche, inject, gargle.

3. flow, run; issue, gush, pour, spout, roll, stream; rain, drizzle; drop, drip, dribble, drain, trickle, percolate; bubble, gurgle, spurt, ooze; spill, overflow. Informal, rain cats and dogs.

Adjectives

1. watery, liquid, aqueous, aquatic, lymphatic; balneal, diluent; brimming, drenching, diluted; weak; wet, moist, soppy, sopping, soaked, wet to the skin, waterlogged.

2. oceanic, pelagic, marina, maritime, briny; tidal, fluent, flowing, streaming, meandering; riparian, alluvial; lacustrine; marshy, swampy, boggy, paludal, miry, sloppy; showery, asea, under water.

Phrases — April showers bring forth May flowers.

Quotations — Water, water, everywhere, nor any drop to drink (Samuel Taylor Coleridge), The snotgreen sea. The scrotumtightening sea (James Joyce), The sea never changes and its works, for all the talk of men, are wrapped in mystery (Joseph Conrad), Water is best (Pindar), The people are like water and the army is like fish (Mao Zedong), Water is the principle, or the element, of all things. All things are water (Thales of Miletus), Though the seas threaten, they are merciful (Shakespeare).

Antonyms, see land, air.

II

(Roget's IV) n.

1. [Water as a liquid]

Syn. rain, rainwater, liquid, drinking water, tap water, city water, mineral water, salt water, spa water, distilled water, limewater, H_O, aqua pura.

2. [Water as a body]

Syn. spring, lake, ocean, dam, sea, puddle, pond, basin, pool, river, lagoon, reservoir, brook, stream, creek, waterfall, bayou.

v.

Syn. sprinkle, spray, irrigate, soak, souse, douse, wet, moisten, flood, inundate, spatter, provide moisture enough.

III

(Roget's 3 Superthesaurus)

I

n.

H2O, liquid, fluid, rain, aqua, mineral water, soda water, *Adam's ale. ''The noblest of the elements.''—Pindar. see lake, ocean, river

II

v.

wet, soak, drench, dampen, irrigate, hose down, saturate, spray, wash, sprinkle.

IV

(Roget's Thesaurus II) verb 1. To lessen the strength of by or as if by admixture. Also used with down: attenuate, cut, dilute, thin, weaken. See STRONG. 2. To fill with tears: tear2. See DRY.