Water-pot

1.  A vessel, usually of earthenware, for holding water.

1382.  Wyclif, John iv. 28. Therfore the womman lefte the watir pott [Vulg. hydriam].

c. 1386.  Chaucer, Clerk’s T., 234. And she set doun hir water pot anon Biside the thresshfold.

1390.  Gower, Conf., I. 302. The waterpot sche hente alofte … And al the water on his hed Sche pourede oute.

1488.  Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot., I. 86. Item, a water pot of siluer.

1526.  Tindale, John ii. 6. Six water-pottes of stone … contaynynge two or thre fyrkins a pece. [1611 apiece].

1530.  Palsgr., 287/1. Water potte for a table, aiguiere.

1555.  Eden, Decades (Arb.), 160. They founde here also sundry kyndes of waterpottes made of earthe of dyuers colours.

1612.  in 10th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm., App. I. 599. 6 greate silver water-potts.

a. 1700.  Evelyn, Diary, 16 Nov. 1643. A morsel of one of the water-pots in which our Saviour did his first miracle.

1702.  Post Man, 6–8 Aug., 2/1. Stoln … out of the House of his Grace the Duke of Schomberg, a Silver Oval Shaving-dish, a Silver Water Pot, and a Silver Box for a Wash-ball.

1839.  Ure, Dict. Arts, 1029. I have … seen an English moulder expert enough to make 25 waterpots a day.

1867.  Freeman, Norm. Conq. (1877), I. v. 302. Striking down the choicest warriors of England with the staves on which they bore their waterpots.

  b.  Astr. The portion of the zodiacal constellation Aquarius which is figured as a vase or urn.

1546.  Gassar’s Prognost., b iij. Wherin at night Mercuri also shall sette after the Sunne with bright Hidria or water pott. Ibid., b iv b. The sunne settyng wyth Alphard, y^e bright water pott.

1590.  T. Hood, Use Celestial Globe, 13. The Waterpot, v. Vrna.

1841.  Emerson, Ess., Ser. I. i. (1848), 2. As crabs, goats, scorpions, the balance, and the waterpot lose their meanness when hung as signs in the zodiac, so [etc.].

  c.  Her. (See quots.)

1688.  [see FONTAL B. 2].

1828–40.  Berry, Encycl. Her., I. Gloss., Water-Pot, a fontal, called, also, a scatebra, out of which naiads and river-gods are represented as pouring the waters or rivers over which they are fabled to preside.

  2.  = WATERING-POT 1.

1530.  Palsgr., 287/1. Water potte for a gardyne, arrousouer.

1605.  Shaks., Lear, IV. vi. 200. Why, this would make a man, a man of Salt To vse his eyes for Garden water-pots.

1649.  Jer. Taylor, Gt. Exemp., I. Ad. Sect. 7. 110. Private Devotions, and secret offices of Religion, are like refreshing of a Garden with the distilling and petty drops of a Waterpot.

1712.  J. James, trans. Le Blond’s Gardening, 168. For Places near at hand, Gardeners make use of Water-Pots.

1828–32.  Webster, Water-pot, a vessel … for sprinkling water on cloth in bleaching, or on plants, etc.

c. 1890.  Stevenson, In South Seas, I. x. (1900), 83. He … was to be seen all day, with spade and water-pot, in his childlike eagerness, actually running between the borders.

  fig.  1583.  Melbancke, Philotimus, L iij. Here is a drie Tale (quoth Parmenio) … and well deserues a water potte.

  3.  A chamber-pot. ? Sc.

1850, 1883.  Ogilvie.

  4.  Zool. = WATERING-POT 2.

1815.  S. Brookes, Introd. Conchol., 157. Water Pot, Serpula Penis.