Webster's Unabridged Dictionary - Letter W - Page 13

Water willow () An American aquatic plant (Dianthera Americana) with long willowlike leaves, and spikes of small purplish flowers.

Water wing () One of two walls built on either side of the junction of a bridge with the bank of a river, to protect the abutment of the bridge and the bank from the action of the current.

Water witch () The dabchick.

Water witch () The stormy petrel.

Water-white (n.) A vinelike plant (Vitis Caribaea) growing in parched districts in the West Indies, and containing a great amount of sap which is sometimes used for quenching thirst.

Waterwork (n.) Painting executed in size or distemper, on canvas or walls, -- formerly, frequently taking the place of tapestry.

Waterwork (n.) 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.

Waterworn (a.) Worn, smoothed, or polished by the action of water; as, waterworn stones.

Waterwort (n.) Any plant of the natural order Elatineae, consisting of two genera (Elatine, and Bergia), mostly small annual herbs growing in the edges of ponds. Some have a peppery or acrid taste.

Watery (a.) Of or pertaining to water; consisting of water.

Watery (a.) Abounding with water; wet; hence, tearful.

Watery (a.) Resembling water; thin or transparent, as a liquid; as, watery humors.

Watery (a.) Hence, abounding in thin, tasteless, or insipid fluid; tasteless; insipid; vapid; spiritless.

Watt (n.) A unit of power or activity equal to 107 C.G.S. units of power, or to work done at the rate of one joule a second. An English horse power is approximately equal to 746 watts.

Wattmeter (n.) An instrument for measuring power in watts, -- much used in measuring the energy of an electric current.

Wattle (n.) A twig or flexible rod; hence, a hurdle made of such rods.

Wattle (n.) A rod laid on a roof to support the thatch.

Wattle (n.) A naked fleshy, and usually wrinkled and highly colored, process of the skin hanging from the chin or throat of a bird or reptile.

Wattle (n.) Barbel of a fish.

Wattle (n.) The astringent bark of several Australian trees of the genus Acacia, used in tanning; -- called also wattle bark.

Wattle (n.) The trees from which the bark is obtained. See Savanna wattle, under Savanna.

Wattled (imp. & p. p.) of Wattle

Wattling (p. pr. & vb. n.) of Wattle

Wattle (v. t.) To bind with twigs.

Wattle (v. t.) To twist or interweave, one with another, as twigs; to form a network with; to plat; as, to wattle branches.

Wattle (v. t.) To form, by interweaving or platting twigs.

Wattlebird (n.) Any one of several species of honey eaters belonging to Anthochaera and allied genera of the family Meliphagidae. These birds usually have a large and conspicuous wattle of naked skin hanging down below each ear. They are natives of Australia and adjacent islands.

Wattlebird (n.) The Australian brush turkey.

Wattled (a.) Furnished with wattles, or pendent fleshy processes at the chin or throat.

Wattling (n.) The act or process of binding or platting with twigs; also, the network so formed.

Waucht (n.) Alt. of Waught

Waught (n.) A large draught of any liquid.

Waul (v. i.) To cry as a cat; to squall; to wail.

Waur (a.) Worse.

Wave (v. t.) See Waive.

Waved (imp. & p. p.) of Wave

Waving (p. pr. & vb. n.) of Wave

Wave (v. i.) To play loosely; to move like a wave, one way and the other; to float; to flutter; to undulate.

Wave (v. i.) To be moved to and fro as a signal.

Wave (v. i.) To fluctuate; to waver; to be in an unsettled state; to vacillate.

Wave (v. t.) To move one way and the other; to brandish.

Wave (v. t.) To raise into inequalities of surface; to give an undulating form a surface to.

Wave (v. t.) To move like a wave, or by floating; to waft.

Wave (v. t.) To call attention to, or give a direction or command to, by a waving motion, as of the hand; to signify by waving; to beckon; to signal; to indicate.

Wave (v. i.) An advancing ridge or swell on the surface of a liquid, as of the sea, resulting from the oscillatory motion of the particles composing it when disturbed by any force their position of rest; an undulation.

Wave (v. i.) A vibration propagated from particle to particle through a body or elastic medium, as in the transmission of sound; an assemblage of vibrating molecules in all phases of a vibration, with no phase repeated; a wave of vibration; an undulation. See Undulation.

Wave (v. i.) Water; a body of water.

Wave (v. i.) Unevenness; inequality of surface.

Wave (v. i.) A waving or undulating motion; a signal made with the hand, a flag, etc.

Wave (v. i.) The undulating line or streak of luster on cloth watered, or calendered, or on damask steel.

Wave (v. i.) Fig.: A swelling or excitement of thought, feeling, or energy; a tide; as, waves of enthusiasm.

Waved (a.) Exhibiting a wavelike form or outline; undulating; intended; wavy; as, waved edge.

Waved (a.) Having a wavelike appearance; marked with wavelike lines of color; as, waved, or watered, silk.

Waved (a.) Having undulations like waves; -- said of one of the lines in heraldry which serve as outlines to the ordinaries, etc.

Waveless (a.) Free from waves; undisturbed; not agitated; as, the waveless sea.

Wavelet (n.) A little wave; a ripple.

Wavellite (n.) A hydrous phosphate of alumina, occurring usually in hemispherical radiated forms varying in color from white to yellow, green, or black.

Wavered (imp. & p. p.) of Waver

Wavering (p. pr. & vb. n.) of Waver

Waver (v. i.) To play or move to and fro; to move one way and the other; hence, to totter; to reel; to swing; to flutter.

Waver (v. i.) To be unsettled in opinion; to vacillate; to be undetermined; to fluctuate; as, to water in judgment.

Waver (v.) A sapling left standing in a fallen wood.

Waverer (n.) One who wavers; one who is unsettled in doctrine, faith, opinion, or the like.

Waveringly (adv.) In a wavering manner.

Waveringness (n.) The quality or state of wavering.

Waveson (n.) Goods which, after shipwreck, appear floating on the waves, or sea.

Waveworn (a.) Worn by the waves.

Wavey (n.) The snow goose.

Waviness (n.) The quality or state of being wavy.

Wavure (n.) See Waivure.

Wavy (a.) Rising or swelling in waves; full of waves.

Wavy (a.) Playing to and fro; undulating; as, wavy flames.

Wavy (a.) Undulating on the border or surface; waved.

Wawaskeesh (n.) The wapiti, or wapiti, or American elk.

Wave (n.) Woe.

Wawe (n.) A wave.

Wawl (v. i.) See Waul.

Waxed (imp.) of Wax

Waxed (p. p.) of Wax

Waxen () of Wax

Waxing (p. pr. & vb. n.) of Wax

Wax (v. i.) To increase in size; to grow bigger; to become larger or fuller; -- opposed to wane.

Wax (v. i.) To pass from one state to another; to become; to grow; as, to wax strong; to wax warmer or colder; to wax feeble; to wax old; to wax worse and worse.

Wax (n.) A fatty, solid substance, produced by bees, and employed by them in the construction of their comb; -- usually called beeswax. It is first excreted, from a row of pouches along their sides, in the form of scales, which, being masticated and mixed with saliva, become whitened and tenacious. Its natural color is pale or dull yellow.

Wax (n.) Hence, any substance resembling beeswax in consistency or appearance.

Wax (n.) Cerumen, or earwax.

Wax (n.) A waxlike composition used for uniting surfaces, for excluding air, and for other purposes; as, sealing wax, grafting wax, etching wax, etc.

Wax (n.) A waxlike composition used by shoemakers for rubbing their thread.

Wax (n.) A substance similar to beeswax, secreted by several species of scale insects, as the Chinese wax. See Wax insect, below.

Wax (n.) A waxlike product secreted by certain plants. See Vegetable wax, under Vegetable.

Wax (n.) A substance, somewhat resembling wax, found in connection with certain deposits of rock salt and coal; -- called also mineral wax, and ozocerite.

Wax (n.) Thick sirup made by boiling down the sap of the sugar maple, and then cooling.

Waxed (imp. & p. p.) of Wax

Waxing (p. pr. & vb. n.) of Wax

Wax (v. t.) To smear or rub with wax; to treat with wax; as, to wax a thread or a table.

Waxberry (n.) The wax-covered fruit of the wax myrtle, or bayberry. See Bayberry, and Candleberry tree.

Waxbill (n.) Any one of numerous species of finchlike birds belonging to Estrelda and allied genera, native of Asia, Africa, and Australia. The bill is large, conical, and usually red in color, resembling sealing wax. Several of the species are often kept as cage birds.

Waxbird () The waxwing.

Waxen (a.) Made of wax.

Waxen (a.) Covered with wax; waxed; as, a waxen tablet.

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