† 1. A rope of some kind. Obs.
1626. Capt. J. Smith, Accid. Yng. Seamen, 14. The brest ropes are now out of vse, the water line is [i.e., in use].
2. Naut. The line of floatation of a ship; the line supposed to be described on the hull by the surface of the water when a ship is afloat. Often (= LOAD-WATER-LINE) the proper line of floatation when the ship is fully laden. Light water-line: the line of floatation of a ship without cargo.
a. 1625. Nomenclator Navalis (Harl. MS. 2301).
1627. Capt. J. Smith, Sea Gram., ix. 45. The water line is that Bend or place she should swim in when she is loaded.
1664. Evelyn, Sylva, iv. 20. Elm is … proper for Water-works, Mills, Pipes, Pumps, Ship-planks beneath the Water-line.
1691. T. H[ale], Acc. New Invent., 122. The Horizontal Section at the water line. Ibid., 125. Our second Water-line, which I call the sailing-line.
1773. Emerson, Princ. Mechanics (ed. 3), 236. Let DdAcC be the water-line or horizontal section of the water and the hull of a ship.
1805. [D. Steel], Shipwright’s Vade-M., 141. Water Lines or Lines of Floatation. Those horizontal lines, supposed to be described by the surface of the water on the bottom of a ship, and which are exhibited at certain depths upon the sheer-draught. Of these, the most particular are those denominated the Light Water Line and the Load Water Line.
1837. Civil Engin. & Arch. Jrnl., I. 13/1. Her length on the water-line 230 feet.
1882. ‘Ouida,’ Maremma, I. 151. Brigs laden to the water-line with cargo and steering straight for Africa.
1889. Welch, Text Bk. Naval Archit., i. 8. The line in which the surface of the water cuts the surface of the ship when floating in any position is called the water line for that position.
1892. F. W. Pangborn, in Century Mag., May, 23/2. The water in the windward tanks cannot escape, because the outlets are below the water-line of the boat.
b. attrib. as in water-line armour, belt, length.
1868. Rep. Munitions War, 270. There is a water-line belt of the same thickness (41/2 inch plating).
1884. Pall Mall Gaz., 25 Sept., 1/2. The water-line armour tends to save the ship from sinking…. To leave two-thirds the length of the ship without this water-line armoured belt is a most awfully risky experiment.
1892. F. W. Pangborn, in Century Mag., May, 25/1. Which thus gained advantage over square-sterned boats of equal water-line length.
3. Shipbuilding. Any one of certain structural lines of a ship, parallel with the surface of the water, which represent the contour of the hull at various heights above the keel, and collectively determine the exterior form of the vessel.
1750. Blanckley, Nav. Expositor, Water Line, is that which goes round the Ship at the Surface of the Water, and shews the true Shape of her Body.
1797. Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3), XVII. 399/1. In ships that draw more water abaft than afore, the water lines will not be parallel to the keel.
1830. Hedderwick, Mar. Archit., 186. Having the diagonals drawn on the body-plan, next draw in the water-lines. The water-lines and transoms are commonly drawn first on the sheer-plan, and transferred to the body-plan.
1851–4. C. Tomlinson’s Cycl. Usef. Arts (1867), II. 506. The principal lines employed in constructing a draught…. Water lines, which in the sheer plan are straight lines drawn parallel to the surface of the water, and in the half-breadth plan they show the form of the ship by the successive breadths marked at heights corresponding with the water lines in the sheer plan…. The upper water line in the half-breadth plan is the line of flotation.
1878. D. Kemp, Man. Yacht Sailing, 377. Water Line, a horizontal plane passing through a vessel longitudinally. A line shown in the half-breadth plan of a ship drawing.
b. attrib., as in water-line pattern, plan, model.
1867. Emerson, May-day, 205. What god is this imperial Heat?… Doth it bear hidden in its heart Water-line patterns of all art, All figures, organs, hues, and graces?
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., Water-line model. The same as key-model.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., Water-line Model, a model formed by board shaped according to the draft-lines on the paper, and laid upon each other to form a solid model.
4. The weather-mark or stain on a wall showing where a roof formerly terminated against the wall.
1886. Willis & Clark, Cambridge, II. 148. A new roof was constructed, the pitch of which was regulated by the water-line on the eastern face of the tower.
5. = WATER-LEVEL 3. (See quot. 1897.)
1849. Dempsey, Drainage Districts & Lands, 70. Districts lying below the level of the adjacent river, or so little above it that drains of adequate capacity must have their beds below the water-line, necessarily require artificial means of discharging the drainage waters.
1869. R. B. Smyth, Gold Fields Victoria, 625. Water-line, the line in any reef where water is struck in the various shafts.
1890. Nature, 27 Nov., 94/2. The absence of water passing into the ground for a long period naturally leads to a lowering of the free ground water-line.
1897. Rideal, Water & Purif., 84. The ‘line of saturation,’ or water-line, is the level at which the water stands, and to which it will rise in wells, in any water-bearing stratum.
8. The outline of a coast.
1791. W. Gilpin, Forest Scenery, II. 159. The water-line of the island appears to more advantage. Among many smaller indentations of the coast, the bays of Totland, and Newtown, are considerable.
1853. Kane, Grinnell Exped., xlvi. (1856), 423. The water-line was toothed with fangs of broken ice, which scraped against the beach as the tides rose and fell.
7. A linear watermark in paper.
1847. De Morgan, Arithm. Bks., Introd. p. xiii. It is supposed … that the waterlines are perpendicular in folio, octavo, and decimo-octavo books, and horizontal in quarto and duodecimo.
1858. Sotheby’s Principia Typogr., III. 32. In the identification of the manufacture of paper, two very important points must be observed: First, the space between the divisional water-lines caused by the thicker upright wires of the sieve; and secondly, [etc.]. Ibid., 86. Remarkably thick and spongy paper, having been much sized; the upright water-lines scarcely visible.
Hence Waterlined a., of paper, marked with water-lines. Waterliner, a shot that hits a vessel on the water-line.
1898. Kipling, Fleet in Being, ii. 21. Oh, good shot! That was a water-liner…. That was the Marines’ three-pounder.
