oiter

Noun

water (countable and uncountable, plural waters)

1. (uncountable) An inorganic compound (of molecular formula H₂O) found at room temperature and pressure as a clear liquid; it is present naturally as rain, and found in rivers, lakes and seas; its solid form is ice and its gaseous form is steam.
   • By the action of electricity, the water was resolved into its two parts, oxygen and hydrogen.
   1. (uncountable) The liquid form of this substance: liquid H₂O.
      • May I have a glass of water?
   2. (countable) A serving of liquid water.
      • Joe bustled back and offered her a glass of wine but she shook her head. “Just a water, please.”2006, Lori Foster, Erin McCarthy, Amy Garvey, Bad Boys of Summer, →ISBN, page 91
2. The aforementioned liquid, considered one of the Classical elements or basic elements of alchemy.
   • He showed me the river of living water, sparkling like crystal, flowing from the throne of God.
3. (in plural, uncountable) Water in a body; an area of open water.
   • Roſa. O vain peticioner, beg a greater matter,
     Thou now requeſts but Mooneſhine in the water.c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Loues Labour’s Lost”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
4. (archaic, dialectal, poetic) A body of water, almost always a river, sometimes a lake or reservoir, especially in the names given to such bodies.
   • And as they went on their waye
     they cam vnto a certayne water
     and the gelded man ſayde: Se here is water
     what ſhall lett me to be baptiſed?1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, Acts viij:[36], folio clxvi, recto

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