Any aquatic plant with inconspicuous flowers; spec. = WATER-THYME 2.
1842. Browning, In a Gondola, 210. Your gondola—let Zorzi wreathe A mesh of water-weeds about Its prow.
1848. Schomburgk, Hist. Barbados, 5610. Spigelia anthelmia…. Loggerhead Weed, Hughes.… Water Weed.
1855. Anne Pratt, Flower. Pl., V. 185. He found that this water-weed [sc. Anacharis] had … accumulated there in great profusion.
1872. Oliver, Elem. Bot., II. 257. The ‘New Water-weed’ (Elodea canadensis), an American plant, was first remarked in Britain in 1817.
1890. Bridges, Shorter Poems, II. v. 27. The water-weeds, that … scarce allow a narrow stream to pass.
1914. Blackw. Mag., Aug., 211/2. We pass … shikaras laden with wood or hay or water-weed, [etc.].
