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Watermark   Listen
noun
Watermark  n.  
1.
A mark indicating the height to which water has risen, or at which it has stood; the usual limit of high or low water.
2.
A letter, device, or the like, wrought into paper during the process of manufacture. Note: "The watermark in paper is produced by bending the wires of the mold, or by wires bent into the shape of the required letter or device, and sewed to the surface of the mold; it has the effect of making the paper thinner in places. The old makers employed watermarks of an eccentric kind. Those of Caxton and other early printers were an oxhead and star, a collared dog's head, a crown, a shield, a jug, etc. A fool's cap and bells, employed as a watermark, gave the name to foolscap paper; a postman's horn, such as was formerly in use, gave the name to post paper."
3.
(Naut.) See Water line, 2. (R.)






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Watermark" Quotes from Famous Books



... rejoined our captain. "This is but pettifogging work at the best: it won't pay for the means of resistance. My lugger will be ready in May, and then I'll see what a revenue cutter is made of. I was at Ostend last Christmas, and saw her. By Jove, she's a beauty! She was planked above the watermark then, and must be nearly ready for launching by this time. I'll pass through the Race but once more; then adieu to dark nights and south-west gales—and huzza for a row of teeth, with the will, as well as the power, to bite. Sixteen long ...
— The King's Own • Captain Frederick Marryat

... setting herself the difficult task of making their relation, every minute of the time, not fall below the standard of that other hour, in the treasured past, which hung there behind them like a framed picture in a museum, a high watermark for the history of their old fortune; the summer evening, in the park at Fawns, when, side by side under the trees just as now, they had let their happy confidence lull them with its most golden tone. There had ...
— The Golden Bowl • Henry James

... to me which gives an entertaining glimpse of the average ability of a class. "John Stubbs x his mark" is obviously "low-watermark," but there are levels between that and high-school possibilities which we cannot often measure. The note is written on fair white paper and had a white envelope. The writer is American, the wife of ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Vol. 26, September 1880 • Various

... on plain paper, use a plain envelope, be sure that neither has a watermark, and get it off to-night without fail. Take a taxi to St. Pancras station and post it there. If you make haste you can get it in a pillar-box before the ...
— Red Masquerade • Louis Joseph Vance

... are disunited; so that the eye leaps from this to that, and does not pass from one to the other without being able to stop, drawn on by the continuity of line; neither is there any undulation or furrowing of watermark, nor in one spot or atom of the whole surface, is there distinct explanation of form to the eye by means of a determined shadow. All is mere sweeping of the brush over the surface with various ground colors, without a single indication of character ...
— Modern Painters Volume I (of V) • John Ruskin

... are remarkably fine. this river I presume must extend back as far as the black hills and probably is the channel through which a great extent of plain country discharge their superfluous waters in the spring season. it had the appearance of having recently discharged it's waters; and from the watermark, it did not appear that it had been more than 2 feet deep at it's greatest hight. This stream (if such it can properly be termed) we called Big dry river. about a mile below this river on the same side a large creek falls in also dry at present. The mineral salts and quarts appear ...
— The Journals of Lewis and Clark • Meriwether Lewis et al

... Kiraly's innocence, an agitated Hun appears with the news that the real Goring is in Washington, and the papers all spoof; which was annoying, as a reading-glass had already disclosed to the chief spy the British Government watermark, which obviously proved ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 152, March 14, 1917 • Various

... have been inserted by a chirographer. It is, says Van de Velde, (the former possessor,) on the fly-leaf, "sans chiffres et reclames, en longues lignes de 27 lignes sur les pages entieres." The full stop employed is a sort of twofold, recumbent, circumflex or caret; and the most eminent watermark in the paper is a Unicorn, bearing a much more suitable antelopian weapon than is that awkwardly horizontal horn prefixed by Dr. Dibdin to the Oryx in profile which he has depicted in plate vi. appertaining ...
— Notes and Queries, Number 71, March 8, 1851 • Various

... is white wove and has no watermark, and the stamps were not perforated. There are two colours of the gum, one being the usual clear white: the other is a pale yellow colour, which may, however, be due to climatic influence, particularly as it is a noticeable feature of a ...
— Gambia • Frederick John Melville



Words linked to "Watermark" :   water line, low-water mark, mark, high-water mark, marker, marking, line



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