dead waterdead-watern.
1. Water without any current; still water.
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the world > the earth > water > body of water > still or standing water > [noun]
wetec897
wet?a1500
dead water1601
stand1612
still water1832
1601 P. Holland tr. Pliny Hist. World I. 240 A standing poole or dead water.
1691 W. Petty Treat. Naval Philos. in T. Hale Acct. New Inventions 122 Its broad side lying to the Wind in dead water.
1874 F. C. Burnand My Time xxii. 197 We pulled in..and made for a quiet nook in dead-water.
2. Nautical. The eddy water just behind the stern of a ship under way.
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1627 J. Smith Sea Gram. ix. 42 Dead water is the Eddie water followes the sterne of the ship, not passing away so quickly as that slides by her sides.
1850 J. Greenwood Sailor's Sea-bk. 114 Vessels with a round buttock have but little or no dead-water.
3. The stillest state of the tide, when the rise and fall are at a minimum; the neap tide. (Cf. dead adj. 27.)
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the world > the earth > water > flow or flowing > tide > type of tide > [noun] > neap > low water
dead low water1561
dead neap1561
dead water1561
1561 R. Eden tr. M. Cortés Arte Nauigation ii. xviii. sig. G.ii Whiche the Mariners call nepe tydes..dead waters, or lowe fluddes.
4. (See quot. 1904.)
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1904 G. F. Goodchild & C. F. Tweney Technol. & Sci. Dict. 151/2 Dead water, water which does not come into contact with the effective heating surface of a boiler.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1894; most recently modified version published online September 2019).
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