1. A water-clock or clepsydra.
1661. [T. Powell], Hum. Industry, 4. The Nasican Scipio was the first that brought the use of Water-glasses amongst them, and distinguished the hours of day and night.
1665. Theaker, Light to Longitude, To Rdr. The measuring of Distances betwixt any two Meridians by Pendulums, Sand-glasses, Water-glasses, &c.
1800. Asiatic Ann. Reg., Suppl. Chron. 147/1. Machinery of this kind was previously unknown in Siam, time being generally measured by water-glasses.
1862. Grote, Greece, II. lxvii. VI. 74. With full notice to defendants and full time of defence measured by the water-glass [ed. 1850 clock].
† 2. A surface of water serving as a mirror, nonce-use.
1610. J. Davies (Heref.), Panegyr., in R. Vaughan’s Water-Workes, B 2 b. Such is this Water-glasse, wherein these Times Do see how to adorne their Meades in Greene.
† 3. A glass finger-bowl. Obs.
1766. Smollett, Trav., I. v. 66. I know of no custom more beastly than that of using water-glasses, in which polite company spirt, and squirt, and spue the filthy scourings of their gums, under the eyes of each other.
1776. Twiss, Tour Ireland, 37. The filthy custom of using water-glasses after meals is as common as in England … no well-bred persons touch their victuals with their fingers, and consequently such ablutions ought to be unnecessary.
1784. Cowper, Let. W. Unwin, 5 April. Your mother … begs you will buy for her eight blue, deep blue, water glasses.
4. A glass vessel to contain water; esp. such a vessel intended for keeping plants in water.
1612. Sc. Bk. Rates, in Halyburton’s Ledger (1867), 309. Watter glasses the dozen, xl s.
1824. Loudon, Green-house Comp., I. 10. Wherever a few plants in pots, or bulbs in water-glasses, are kept in a room, the same objection may be raised.
1849. Florist, 46. A Hyacinth removed from the water-glass should have its roots nicely arranged in good sandy soil.
1852. Thackeray, Esmond, II. v. ‘Is the Queen dead?’ cries out Bolingbroke, seizing on a water-glass.
6. An instrument for making observations beneath the surface of water, consisting of a bucket with a glass bottom; a water-telescope.
1848. Johns, Week at Lizard, 75. The fishermen say, that they can … descry, with the help of their water-glasses, pieces of cannon lying at the bottom.
1881. E. Ingersoll, Oyster-Industry, 250. Water-glass.—A bucket with a partial glass bottom, through which the position of sponges is sought. (Florida reefs.)
1902. A. Alcock, Naturalist in Ind. Seas, 49. A water-glass … is a wooden funnel, with a window of good plate-glass in the broad end and a pair of handles about hallway up.
6. An aqueous solution of silicate of soda or potash (or of both), which solidifies when exposed to the air. It is used for many purposes, e.g., as a vehicle for fresco-painting, as a paint for rendering material incombustible, for pickling eggs, etc.
1859. Ecclesiologist, XX. 283. Water-glass seems likely to offer a substitute for enamel.
1867. Brande & Cox, Dict. Sci., etc., Waterglass … is a soluble alkaline silicate, a liquified flint, made by boiling silica in an alkali.
1880. J. Percy, in Times, 25 Dec., 5/6. What is designated ‘Herr Windsperger’s fire-extinguishing solution,’ which is an aqueous solution of silicate of soda, the substance commonly known under the name of ‘water-glass.’
1907. Westm. Gaz., 14 May, 2/1. I have just bought eleven score of new-laid eggs … and put them down in waterglass to use all through the time when eggs are dear.
b. attrib.
1862. Catal. Internat. Exhib., Brit., II. No. 5916. The three pictures … are painted—that in the centre panel … in oil, the two in the side panels in fresco, in the water-glass or sterochromic method.
1862. Lond. Society, 258. The new picture is commonly designated a fresco. It is really a water-glass painting.
1883. R. Haldane, Workshop Rec., Ser. II. 295/1. The water-glass paint … is liable to be washed away when exposed to rain.
1905. W. Holman Hunt, Pre-Raph., II. 332. Silica or water-glass painting was substituted for Maclise’s ‘Waterloo’ … the two water-glass paintings.
