Wat, a name for a hare. Venus and Ad. 697; Drayton, Pol. xxiii. 331; Levins, Manipulus. In prov. use (EDD.). Properly a pet-name for Walter (Water).
watch, a time-piece, clock. Richard II, v. 5. 52. Probably, a candle marked out into sections, each of which was a certain portion of time in burning, Richard III, v. 3. 63.
watchet, pale blue. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 4. 40; Marston, Malcontent, iii. 1 (Bilioso); Drayton, Pol. v. 13. ME. wachet, light blue colour (Chaucer, C. T. A. 3321). See Dict.
Water, a pronunciation of the Christian name Walter, see 2 Hen. VI, iv. 1. 35. ME. Wateere or Water, ‘propyr name of a man, Walterus’ (Prompt. EETS. 517, see note, no. 2530). Anglo-F. Gualtier (Ch. Rol. 2039), Norm. F. Waltier. Of Teutonic origin, cp. OE. Wealdhere (power + army), see Oldest Eng. Texts, 537.
water, to lay in; See [lay] (5).
water-gall, a second rainbow seen above the first; a fragment of a rainbow appearing on the horizon; Lucrece, 1588. A Hampshire word, see EDD. (s.v. Water, 1 (50)).
water-rug, a rough kind of water-dog (?). Macbeth, iii. 1. 94.
water-work, painting executed in water-colour; ‘The German hunting in water-work’, 2 Hen. IV, ii. 1. 158.
wawes, waves. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 12. 4. ME. wawe, a wave (Chaucer, C. T. B. 508); ‘a wawe of the see’ (Wyclif, James i. 6). Icel. vāgr, a wave.
wax: phr. a man of wax, Romeo, i. 3. 76 (as pretty as if he had been modelled in wax); so, a prince of wax, Beaumont and Fl., Philaster, i. 1 (Megra). Cp. ‘a lad of wax’, ‘a man of wax’, in prov. use in Durham and west Yorks., see EDD. (s.v. Wax, sb.2 4), where the expressions are associated with the vb. wax (to grow).