Orig. U.S.
1. Land or buildings abutting on a river, a lake, the sea, etc.; the frontage of a town on the waterside.
1785. Caledonian Mercury, 26 Sept., 2/1. [The Navy-Office] is to occupy the whole mass of building in the water-front from the pediment compartment in the center to the west angle, and again on the return towards the north.
1856. Emerson, Eng. Traits, iii. 47. A people so skilful and sufficient in economizing water-front by docks, warehouses, and lighters.
1883. W. H. Bishop, in Harper’s Mag., May, 813/2. The water-front [in San Francisco] is lined with shipping.
1896. Howells, Impressions & Exp., 256. The ugliness is … that of all city water-fronts.
1897. Kipling, Captains Courageous, x. 230. Boat-builders, and coopers, and all the mixed population of the water-front.
attrib. 1918. C. Fox Smith, in Punch, 27 March, 206/1.
| And chaps that knowed her in their time, ’tween London and Rangoon, | |
| In many a sailors’ drinking-place and water-front saloon. |
2. ‘A water-heater set in the front of a stove’ (Webster, 1911).
