1. A stream of water, a river or brook; also an artificial channel for the conveyance of water.
1510. in Glasscock, Rec. St. Michael’s, Bp.’s Stortford (1882), 31. Item of Rychard wood for a watercorse, jd.
1550. W. Hunnis, Ps. vi. (1583), 3. Nor in the deepe, and water course, That passeth vnder ground.
1611. Bible, Isa. xliv. 4. They shall spring vp … as willowes by the water courses.
1724. Act 11 Geo. I., c. 11 § 7. To cleanse any Ditch or Water-course adjoyning to the said Roads.
1846. J. Baxter’s Libr. Pract. Agric., I. 229. My own ditches or watercourses are four feet wide.
1849. Layard, Nineveh & Rem., I. vii. 175. Watercourses, once carrying fertility to many gardens, were now empty and dry.
1865. Geikie, Scen. & Geol. Scot., i. 7. Hundreds and thousands of watercourses, which, from the tiniest runnel up to the ample river, are all arranged in the closest harmony with each other.
attrib. 1869. Boutell, Arms & Armour, iv. 60. In its form, one of these shields is an elongated and convex oblong, somewhat resembling a hollowed water-course tile.
fig. 1570. T. Norton, trans. Nowell’s Catech., 63 b. From the spring hed of his diuine liberalitie as it were by certaine guiding of water courses, God conueyeth his benefites to vs by the handes of men.
b. in legal use (see quot. 1848).
1576. in W. H. Turner, Select. Rec. Oxford (1880), 385. The dyche, tearmed to be a water course,… hath bene stopped.
1626. Whitlock, J. in Bulstrode, Rep., III. (1659), 340. A Water course doth not begin by prescription, nor yet by assent, but the same doth begin ex jure naturæ, having taken this course naturally, and cannot be averted.
1681. Stair, Inst. Law Scot., I. xvii. § 12. 345. Without such a Servitude, Water may not be altered or diverted from its course, as was found, where the Water-course was the March betwixt the Heretors.
1725. Mod. Rep. (1769), II. 274. For suppose a man hath a water-course running through his ground, and his neighbour diverts it, this is no trespass.
1832. Act 2 & 3 Will. IV., c. 71 § 2. No Claim which may be lawfully made … to any Watercourse, or the Use of any Water, to be enjoyed [etc.].
1848. Wharton, Law Lex., Watercourse, a species of incorporeal hereditament, being a right which one has to the benefit of the flow of a river or stream, such right commonly referring to a stream passing through one’s land.
† c. Court of the Watercourse (see quot.). Obs.
1698–9. Act 11 Will. III., c. 21 § 14. Any Right … claimed … for the holding a certaine Court within the said Mannor [of Gravesend] called Curia Cursus Aquæ or The Court of the Watercourse for the better Government of Barges Boats and Vessells useing the Ferry or Passage from the Towne of Gravesend to London.
2. The bed or channel of a river or stream.
1566. S’hampton Crt. Leet Rec. (1905), I. I. 36. We present owen symones hathe not mendyd the watter cowrse of hys close by goslen lane.
1679–88. Moneys Secr. Serv. Chas. II. & Jas. II. (Camden), 88. To scowre the ditches and water-courses at Hampton Court, to keep the fowle there.
1725. De Foe, Voy. round World (1840), 265. He presently threw out the water, with the sand [etc.] … into the ordinary water-course.
1830. Lyell, Princ. Geol., I. 401. A want of relation in the position of alluvial beds to the existing watercourses may be no test of the high antiquity of such deposits.
1871. L. Stephen, Playgr. Eur. (1894), X. 248. Reaching the valley … by the left bank of the stream, or rather watercourse.
† 3. ? The flow of water. Obs.–0
1552. Hulott, Water course, agmen, inis, (?) quia aqua habet impetum.
† 4. The fairway or width of water-surface under a bridge. Obs. rare.
1735. J. Price, Stone Br. Thames, 3. The Space of the Water, or Water-course, will be 600 Feet between the Piers.
† 5. Anat. a. = AQUEDUCT 3. b. The hypogastrium. Obs.
1615. Crooke, Body of Man, 222. In the lower belly … because this is easily dilated as the burthen increaseth, and in the lower part of it called the watercourse or Hypogastrium. Ibid., VIII. xiv. (1631), 581. The watercourse or darke hole betwixt the Mamillary processe and appendix called Styloides.
