A large open-headed cask set up on end to receive the rain-water from a roof.
1833. Loudon, Encycl. Archit., § 448. Water-butt and stand.
1835. Dickens, Sk. Boz, Early Coaches. The water is ‘coming in’ in every area, the pipes have burst, the water-butts are running over.
1849. C. Brontë, Shirley, xxxii. A woman as round and big as our largest water-butt.
1873. Miss Thackeray, Wks. (1891), I. 70. George jumped out of window on to the water-butt, to see what was the matter.
b. A contemptuous epithet for a teetotaller.
1898. Daily News, 4 May, 6/6. Scoffing comrades couldn’t call him a waterbutt or a milksop.
