Chapter Water to Weak as Water of W by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Waterworks (The). The shedding of tears. Many other meanings also.

“ `Oh, miss, I never thought to have seen this day,' and the waterworks began to play.”- Thackeray.

Watling Street A road extending east and west across South Britain. Beginning at Dover, it ran through Canterbury to London, and thence to Cardigan. The word is a corruption of Vitellina strata, the paved road of Vitellius, called by the Britons Guetalin. Poetically the “Milky Way” has been called the Watling Street of the sky.

“Secunda via principalis dicitur Wateling-streate, tendens ab euro-austro in zephyrum septentrionalem. Incipit ... a Dovaria ... usque Cardigan.”- Leland.

Watteau “Peintre de fêtes galantes du roi. ” (1684- 1721.)

Wave The ninth wave. A notion prevails that the waves keep increasing in regular series till the maximum arrives, and then the series begins again. No doubt when two waves coalesce they form a large one, but this does not occur at fixed intervals. The most common theory is that the tenth wave is the largest, but Tennyson says the ninth.

“And then the two
Dropt to the cove, and watch'd the great sea fall,
Wave after wave, each mightier than the last,
Till last, a ninth one, gathering half the deep
And full of voices, slowly rose and plunged
Roaring, and all the wave was in a flame.”
Tennyson: The Holy Grail.

Wax-bond End (A). A thread waxed with cobbler's wax and used for binding whips, fishing-rods, ropes, etc., for sewing boots and shoes, etc. It is waxed and used for a bond.

Way-bit A Yorkshire way-bit. A large overplus. Ask a Yorkshireman the distance of any place, and he will reply so many miles and a way-bit (wee-bit); but the way-bit will prove a frightful length to the traveller who imagines it means only a little bit over. The High-landers say, “A mile and a bittock, ” which means about two miles.

Ways and Means A parliamentary term, meaning the method of raising the supply of money for the current requirements of the state.

Wayfaring Tree (The). The Guelder rose (q.v.).

“Wayfaring Tree' What ancient claim
Hast thou to that right pleasant name?
Was it that some faint pilgrim came Unhopedly to thee,
In the brown desert's weary way,
Midst thirst and toil's consuming sway,
And there, as `neath thy shade he lay,
Blessed the Wayfaring Tree?” W.H.

Wayland the Scandinavian Vulcan, was son of the sea-giant Wate, and the sea-nymph Wac-hilt. He was bound apprentice to Mimi the smith. King Nidung cut the sinews of his feet, and cast him into prison, but he escaped in a feather- boat. (Anglo-Saxon weallan, to fabricate.)

Wayland Smith's Cave A cromlech near Lambourn, Berkshire. Scott, in his Kenilworth (chap. xiii.), says, “Here lived a supernatural smith, who would shoe a traveller's horse for a `consideration.' His fee was sixpence, and if more was offered him he was offended.”

Wayland Wood (near Watton, Norfolk), said to be the scene of the Babes in the Wood, and a corruption of “Wailing Wood.”

Wayleaves Right of way through private property for the laying of waterpipes and making of sewers, etc., provided that only the surface-soil is utilised by the proprietor.

“Mr. Woods made an attempt to get the House of Commons to commit itself to the proposition: That the present system of royalty rents and wayleaves is injurious to the great industries.”- Liberty Review, April 14th, 1894, p. 307.

Wayzgoose An entertainment given to journeymen, or provided by the journeymen themselves. It is mainly a printers' affair, which literary men and commercial staffs may attend by invitation or sufferance. The word wayz means a “bûndle of straw,” and wayzgoose a “stubble goose,” properly