watery

• watry (obsolete)

From Middle English watery, wattry, from Old English wæteriġ (“watery”), from Proto-West Germanic *watarīg. Equivalent to water +‎ -y.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈwɔːtəɹi/, /ˈwɔːtɹi/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈwɔtəɹi/
• (cot–caught merger) IPA^(key): /ˈwɑtəɹi/
• Rhymes: -ɔːtəɹi, (Received Pronunciation) -ɔːtɹi, (cot–caught merger) -ɑtəɹi

watery (comparative waterier, superlative wateriest)

1. Resembling or characteristic of water.
   • 2005, Robert L. Mott, Radio Sound Effects:

     The prop also gave a good watery sound to those early radio rainstorms.

2. Wet, soggy or soaked with water.
   • 2013 January, Nancy Langston, “The Fraught History of a Watery World”, in American Scientist‎^[1], volume 101, number 1, archived from the original on 22 January 2013, page 59:

     European adventurers found themselves within a watery world, a tapestry of streams, channels, wetlands, lakes and lush riparian meadows enriched by floodwaters from the Mississippi River.

3. Diluted or having too much water.
4. (of light) Thin and pale therefore suggestive of water.
5. Weak and insipid.
   • 2012 August 21, Jason Heller, “The Darkness: Hot Cakes (Music Review)”, in The Onion AV Club‎^[2]:

     When the album succeeds, such as on the swaggering, Queen-esque “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us,” it does so on The Darkness’ own terms—that is, as a random ’80s-cliché generator. But with so many tired, lazy callbacks to its own threadbare catalog (including “Love Is Not The Answer,” a watery echo of the epic “I Believe In A Thing Called Love” from 2003’s Permission To Land), Hot Cakes marks the point where The Darkness has stopped cannibalizing the golden age of stadium rock and simply started cannibalizing itself. And, despite Hawkins’ inveterate crotch-grabbing, there was never that much meat there to begin with.

6. Discharging water or similar substance as a result of disease etc.

   I took my cat to the vet because I was worried about his watery eyes.

7. Tearful.
8. Containing many bodies of water.
   • 1988 April 16, Elizabeth Pincus, “Taming Upstart Women”, in Gay Community News, page 7:

     The good stuff in High Tide is the visual loveliness, maybe too lovely for the supposedly depressed seaport of Eden, the film's southern Australia locale. High Tide is laden with luscious pastels, watery vistas and quirky, weather-beaten clam joints.

• (characteristic of water): waterish
  • See also Thesaurus:runny
  • aqueous, aquose
• (soaked with water): drenched, moist, waterlogged; see also Thesaurus:wet
• (having too much water): wishy-washy
• (weak, insipid): bland, flavorless (figuratively); see also Thesaurus:insipid

• tawery, tawyer