watery

English

Alternative forms

• watry (obsolete)

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

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

  • Audio (Southern England)

    (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈwɔtəɹi/
• (US, cot–caught merger, Canada) IPA^(key): /ˈwɑtəɹi/

Adjective

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 1, Nancy Langston, “The Fraught History of a Watery World”, in American Scientist‎^[1], volume 101, number 1, 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.

Synonyms

• (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

Derived terms

• unwatery

Translations

resembling or characteristic of water

• Bulgarian: воден (bg) (voden)
• Finnish: vesimäinen, vettä muistuttava

wet, soggy or soaked with water

• Bulgarian: мокър (bg) (mokǎr), подгизнал (bg) (podgiznal)
• Dutch: waterig (nl)
• Finnish: läpimärkä (fi)
• French: aqueux (fr)
• German: wässrig (de)
• Hindi: आबी (hi) (ābī)
• Italian: acquoso (it), acqueo (it), bagnato (it), inzuppato (it)
• Japanese: 水っぽい (mizuppoi)
• Kurdish:

  Central Kurdish: ئاوی‎ (ku) (awî)

  Northern Kurdish: avî (ku)

• Latvian: ūdeņains
• Low German:

  German Low German: wäterig

• Malay: berair
• Manx: ushtagh
• Maori: toriwai, waiwai, haruwai, tōwahiwahi, tōwāwahi
• Mopan Maya: jaʼ
• Persian: آبکی‎ (fa) (âbaki)
• Portuguese: aquoso (pt)
• Romanian: apătos (ro), apos (ro)
• Russian: водяни́стый (ru) (vodjanístyj)
• Spanish: acuoso (es)
• Swedish: våt (sv), vattnig (sv), blöt (sv), sur (sv)
• Vietnamese: please add this translation if you can

diluted or having too much water

• Bashkir: шыйыҡ (šïyïq)
• Bulgarian: воднист (bg) (vodnist), разводнен (bg) (razvodnen)
• Finnish: vetinen (fi)
• Kabuverdianu: xalalá
• Maori: kōpūwai

• Mongolian: шингэн (mn) (shingen)
• Monguor:

  Mangghuer: shangan

• Russian: жи́дкий (ru) (žídkij), водяни́стый (ru) (vodjanístyj)

of light: thin and pale

• Finnish: kelmeä (fi)

weak and insipid

• Finnish: ponneton (fi)

discharging water or similar

• Finnish: vuotava (fi)
• Maori: tētēwai (of the eyes of old people), tētēwai, pītoritoriwai

• Spanish: lloroso (es)

Discharging water due to disease etc.

• Maori: pītoritoriwai

tearful — see tearful

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• German: ^{(please verify)} wässrig (de)

• Italian: ^{(please verify)} acquoso (it)

Anagrams

• tawery, tawyer