water buttn.
/ˈwɔːtə bʌt/, U.S. /ˈwɔdər ˌbət/, /ˈwɑdər ˌbət/ 1. A large barrel or similarly-shaped container used to collect and store rainwater.
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > equipment > receptacle or container > vessel > barrel or cask > [noun] > for liquids > for collecting rain-water
water butt1726
1726 G. Shelvocke Voy. round World vii. 211 Having a cold season coming on, some of them [sc. the people shipwreck'd] thatch'd their dwellings..whilst others got up water-buts, and slept in them under the cover of a tree.
?1790 J. M. Adair Unanswerable Arguments against Abolition Slave Trade i. 40 The want of water is not often felt, from the great number of ponds,..tanks or reservoirs, and water butts at almost every house.
1836 C. Dickens Sketches by Boz 1st Ser. II. 177 The water is ‘coming in’ in every area—the pipes have burst—the water butts are running over.
1872 A. I. Thackeray Old Kensington in Cornhill Mag. May 532 George jumped out of window on to the water-butt to see what was the matter.
1934 B. Lehmann Rumour of Heaven i. ii. 18 The gutters, like streams in spate, overflowed the water-butt and made a miniature lake beside the back door.
1965 T. Holme Carlyles at Home i. 2 The fixtures included bell-wires and cranks,..a twenty-three-inch copper and a large water butt in the back yard.
2006 Independent 2 May 17/1 Divert water from the roof or the shower into a rain harvester (like a water butt) and use it to flush the lavatory.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > drink > thirst > abstention from drinking > [noun] > total abstinence > total abstainer
water-drinker1440
abstainerc1475
Rechabite1637
drink-watera1641
hydropotist1678
hydropot1727
teetotal1834
teetotaller1834
teetotalist1840
Washingtonian1842
Good Templar1853
teetotalleress1854
blue-ribbonist1858
nephalist1861
total abstainer1862
blue-ribbonite1867
totec1870
Templar1874
blue ribboner1878
total abstinent1882
water butt1882
white ribboner1886
non-drinker1910
pioneer1912
T.T.1922
1844 Lloyd's Penny Weekly Misc. 2 98/2 Awful effects of teetotalism.—A youth turned into a walking water butt, through drinking too much of that delightful beverage.]
1882 J. W. Kirton Standard Temperance Dialogues 118 Pump—pump, did you say? Do you take me for a water-butt.
1898 Daily News 4 May 6/6 Scoffing comrades couldn't call him a waterbutt or a milksop.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2015; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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n.1726