Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A structure, contrivance, or engine for conducting, distributing, or otherwise disposingof water: now commonly in the plural.
- noun The aggregate of constructions and appliances for the collection, preservation, and distribution of water for domestic purposes, for the working of machinery, or otherwise for the use of a community.
- noun An appliance through which water is spouted out in jets, sprays, or showers; a fountain; a hydraulic toy.
- noun plural Same as
tear-pump . - noun A marine scene or pageant.
- noun [In the following quotation the word is used punningly, with reference to the freezing over of the Thames during the winter of 1607-8.
- noun Painting with water or something soluble in water as a vehicle.
- noun Hence, a textile fabric, as canvas, painted in this manner, and used instead of tapestry to decorate apartments.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Paint.) Painting executed in size or distemper, on canvas or walls, -- formerly, frequently taking the place of tapestry.
- noun 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.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun art
painting executed insize ordistemper , oncanvas orwalls - noun A
hydraulic apparatus by which a supply ofwater is furnished for useful or ornamental purposes, such as dams, sluices, fountains, etc.
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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A water-inspired work to a serviceable percussion score by Miloslav Kabelac, the often-luminous suite likely served as a study for "The River," Ailey's grander and finer "waterwork" to Duke Ellington's memorable score, originally given some two months after "Streams" in fulfillment of a commission from American Ballet Theatre.
First Signs of Battle at Alvin Ailey Robert Greskovic 2011
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It was the waterwork business that had enticed him up today; he had looked it over from one end to the other, and was highly interested.
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Sewage construction, waterwork construction, in fact, all the agricultural activities, all the industrial activities need cement.
12TH CTC CONGRESS 1966
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There were no railway certificates, waterwork shares, transfers, or notes of stock, mortgages, loans, or anything at all.
In Luck at Last Walter Besant 1868
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Here is a pure mechanism, giving rise to a purposive action, and strictly comparable to that by which Descartes supposes his waterwork Diana to be moved.
Lay Sermons, Addresses and Reviews Thomas Henry Huxley 1860
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PEORIA - Bob Manning's future doesn't involve debates about waterwork buyouts, museum taxes, school locations or political maneuvering at Springdale Cemetery.
pjstar.com Home RSS 2009
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Like some 2,300-year-old serial drama, the story of the Popol Vuh wraps around the base of the Mirador pyramid, its images of hope reflected across the surface of a memoried waterwork.
CounterPunch 2009
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She argued that Wittfogel’s ideas on waterwork societies were equally relevant for an understanding of the miniature water-deficient societies of the Pueblos as for the great nation-states of China, Egypt, and Peru.
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But Geissler’s waterwork remained after Geissler had gone; there it was, working wonders day and night, week after week; the fields turned green, the potatoes ceased to flower, the corn shot up ....
ruzuzu commented on the word waterwork
It would be fun to know which quotation the Century had here, but sometimes mysteries are more entertaining: "n. In the following quotation the word is used punningly, with reference to the freezing over of the Thames during the winter of 1607-8."
July 24, 2015