Word.ws English Dictionary

unspoken water

unspoken water noun: water that is collected by someone who remains silent, particularly from underneath a bridge which leads to a cemetery (though in some folkloric practices, from a well or spring instead), believed to have magical curative properties.

Noun

unspoken water (uncountable)

  1. Water that is collected by someone who remains silent, particularly from underneath a bridge which leads to a cemetery (though in some folkloric practices, from a well or spring instead), believed to have magical curative properties.
    • Of the virtues of south-running water, and 'onspoken water' it is unnecessary to speak. It may be mentioned, however, that in this part of the country the use of unspoken water is not altogether discontinued, and that a south-running stream is still held in some reverence.1839, The Book of Bon-accord: Or, a Guide to the City of Aberdeen, page 364
    • What you do when anyone who is dying has to be cured, is to go and fetch unspoken water. You tak'a pitcher, and get some water that flows under a bridge ovver which living folk walk, and dead folk are borne.1895, Longman's Magazine, page 643

Examples of unspoken water in a sentence

  • If the shilling stuck to the bottom of the cog, the animal was under the spell of a witch, but the unspoken water had taken effect, and a cure would follow.1898, Helen Wheeler Bassett, Frederick Starr, The International Folk-lore Congress of the World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, July, 1893...
  • When the young couple return from the spring, they fill their mouths with the unspoken water and try to spirt it on each other inside the door of the house.1922, James George Frazer, The Golden Bough: pt. IV, … 3d ed., rev. and enl. 1914, page 246:
  • It is in connection with unspoken water.1924, Charles Stewart Black, The Scots Magazine, page 175:
  • The old lady also claimed to be the last woman in Torry to have cured a child using 'unspoken water'.2010, Geoff Holder, Guide to Mysterious Aberdeen, The History Press, →ISBN:

Questions about unspoken water

What does unspoken water mean?
Unspoken water means water that is collected by someone who remains silent, particularly from underneath a bridge which leads to a cemetery (though in some folkloric practices, from a well or spring instead), believed to have magical curative properties.
How do you use unspoken water in a sentence?
If the shilling stuck to the bottom of the cog, the animal was under the spell of a witch, but the unspoken water had taken effect, and a cure would follow.
What part of speech is unspoken water?
Unspoken water is a noun.

Words near unspoken water in the dictionary

  1. unspoked
  2. unspoken
  3. unspoken rizz
  4. unspoken rule
  5. unspoken rules
  6. unspoken water
  7. unspokenly
  8. unspokenness
  9. unsponged
  10. unspongy
  11. unsponsorable

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: unspoken water (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “unspoken water.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/unspoken_water. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.