1. A nymph inhabiting or presiding over water; a naiad.
1390. Gower, Conf., II. 167. And ek sche, as thei understonde, The water Nimphes hath in honde To leden at hire oghne heste.
1567. Golding, Ovid’s Met., VI. 419. I askt him whether that the Altar wee did see Belonged to the Waternymphes, or Faunes, or other God Peculiar to the place.
1579. Spenser, Sheph. Cal., Nov., 143. The water Nymphs … Now balefull boughes of Cypres doen aduance.
1680. Otway, Ovid’s Epist. Phædra to Hippolytus, 174. So may the Water-Nymphs in Heat of Day, Though thou their Sex despise, thy Thirst allay.
1712. Addison, Spect., No. 351, ¶ 5. The changing of the Trojan Fleet into Water-Nymphs, which is the most violent Machine in the whole Æneid.
1821. Scott, Pirate, xvi. The Nereids and Water-nymphs … displayed, as usual, a little more taste and ornament than was to be seen amongst their male attendants.
1900. Catal. Sculpt. Parthen. Brit. Mus., 37. This gap may have been filled by a crouching Water Nymph, associated with the River-god.
b. transf. and fig.
1664. H. More, Myst. Iniq., 306. It is a Pseudo-prophetick Polity that has spred through the whole Territories of the Empire, a Water-Nymph whose skirts are so large, that she has sat floting upon the whole Imperial Ocean for these many Ages.
1751. F. Coventry, Pompey the Little, I. xi. 96. This delicate Fisherwoman … carried him [a dog] one Evening to a certain Coffee-house … where the Lady behind the Bar … prevailed on the gentle Water-Nymph to surrender him for a Dram of Brandy.
2. A water-lily of the genus Nymphæa.
1866. Treas. Bot., Water-nymph, Nymphæa.
