Obs. Also 3 -gong. [f. WATER sb. + GANG sb.1 Cf. ON. vatn(a)gang-r flood, (M)Du. watergang watercourse, G. wassergang flow of water, watercourse.]
1. A flood.
c. 1250. Gen. & Ex., 662. Nembrot gat hise feres red, for ðat he hadde of water dred, To maken a tur, wel heȝ & strong, Of tigel and ter, for water-gong.
2. A watercourse, esp. an artificial watercourse, a mill-leat or the like.
a. 1200[?]. in Dugdale, Monast. (1661), II. 920/2. Omnibus baillivis de Besintone … Robertus de Curci salutem: mando vobis … quatinus justicietis meos homines de Snargate, ut faciant wallas & watergangas & clausuras wallarum.
1209. [‘The word watergangs occurs … in an inedited charter of La Capelle’ (Archæologia, 1893, Ser. II. III. 295, note)].
1322. in Muniments Magd. Coll. Oxf. (1882), 145.
1433. Sc. Acts Jas. I. (1814), II. 22/2. Þat þe breif vndirwrittyn haf courss quhil þe next parliament alanerly of wattir gangis þat is to say of milne leidis & of nane vthir thingis.
1509. Reg. Mag. Sig. Scot., 702/2. Le Wattirgang, aque sive torrentis de Grenelaw. Ibid., 703/1. Le Wattirgang dict. molendini. Ibid. (1601), 391/2. Passand south up the auld rin or watergang of the Teillburne.
1754. T. Gardner, Hist. Dunwich, 96. In the year 1740 the men of Dunwich were digging a Trench near their Old-Port, cross the Beach, to make a Watergang to drain their Marshes.
3. Sc. Law. (See quot.)
1681. Stair, Inst. Law Scot., I. xvii. § 12. 345. A Watergang is a Servitude, of conveying Water thorow the servient Ground for the use of the Dominant.
