[See TABLE sb. 12 a, 13 b, c.]
1. Arch. a. The sloping top of a plinth. b. A horizontal projecting ledge or molding sloping on the top, set along the side of a wall so as to throw off the rainfall.
1428. in Heath, Grocers’ Comp. (1869), 5. The walle atte seid west gabilende was maad x fote in heyghte aboue the water table.
1459. in Willis & Clark, Cambridge (1886), I. 309. iij fotes … from the gronde leuell to the water tabil … and the said water tabell … alle of freeston.
1482–3. Acc. Exch. K. R., 496, No. 25. Pro factura Watertable Garglez et Batilment.
1541. in Proc. Antiq. Scot. (1860), III. 161. Fra the sollis of the said queir duris to the vuer pairt of the walter tabill vnder the thak thairof.
1547. in J. R. Boyle, Hedon (1875), App. 133. Item, for layinge the watter tabyll above the counsell chamer.
a. 1548. [see RAISING-PIECE].
1548. Elyot’s Dict., Corona … is also the water table or copyng of a wall.
1617–8. Hartland Ch. Acc., in Rep. Devonsh. Assoc., XXVII. 60. For putting in water tables of lead.
1707. Mortimer, Husb., 297. The Walls of such Edifices ought to be from the Foundation to the first Water-table, three heading course of Brick,… and at every Story a Water-table, or taking in on the inside for the Summers, Girders or Joysts to rest upon.
1833. Loudon, Encycl. Archit., § 1882. The massive buttress, with its deep weatherings, or water-tables between each graduation or stage of the height.
1878. McVittie, Ch. Ch. Cathedral, Dubl., 66. Weathered in the depth of the buttresses by nine courses of Water-tables.
transf. 1650. Bulwer, Anthropomet., 68. Robbing the Eyes of their natural Pent-house or Water-table, they expose them bare to imbrications.
2. A channel or gutter on each side of a road; ‘also, a small hollow made across a road to carry off surplus water’ (Elworthy).
1707–21. Mortimer, Husb., II. 205. A Water-Table also on each side of the Walk is very good to drain your Walks.
1809. Mavor, Agric. Berks., 422. The … roads … are not sufficiently raised in the middle, the water tables are neither regularly made nor with proper outlets towards the ditches.
1817. W. H. Marshall, Rev. Rep. Board Agric., South., 73, note. Water Table is a west of England term (rather ill chosen) for the draining channel, on the side of a barreled road, to convey away the rain water that may fall upon it.
c. 1830. Pract. Treat. Roads, 9, in Libr. Usef. Knowl., Husb., III. Outlets from the watertables into the ditches cannot be seen in too many places.
1836. W. D. Cooper, Gloss. Sussex, Water-table, a small embankment made across a road, especially on a hill, to carry off the water.
1886. Elworthy, W. Somerset Word-bk.
1906. Westm. Gaz., 24 Sept., 4/1. Now that the local authorities have permitted footpaths by the roadside and water-tables to be obliterated.
3. A window-ledge or sill in a ship or railway carriage.
1883. W. C. Russell, Sailors’ Lang., Water-tables, sills to a ship’s windows.
1884. Stormonth, Water-tables, in a ship, the sills of the windows in the stern.
1890. Funk’s Stand. Dict., Water-table, a horizontal board with beveled top, running underneath the windows, the entire length of a [railway] car.
4. = water-bridge (see WATER sb. 29).
1880. Webster.
1891. Century Dict.
5. = WATER-LEVEL 3.
1879. Cassell’s Techn. Educ., I. 139/2. In other cases it [the water] will not rise to the surface, but form what is known as a ‘water-table’ one, two, or more feet beneath.
1881. Encycl. Brit., XII. 567/1. At varying distances from the surface … there exists a great subterranean lake or sea, known as the ground-water or water-table.
