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Definition of First water
1. Noun. The highest quality gems.
Definition of First water
1. Noun. The highest quality of gemstones, especially of diamonds and pearls. ¹
2. Noun. (context: by extension) Of the highest rank or quality. ¹
¹ Source: wiktionary.com
Lexicographical Neighbors of First Water
Literary usage of First water
Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:
1. Mechanics' and Engineers' Pocket-book of Tables, Rules, and Formulas by Charles Haynes Haswell (1920)
"1704. First Newspaper in America. 1705. Blankets first made at Bristol, England.
ed. 146. Carthage destroyed. 70. first water-mill described. 51. ..."
2. The Popular History of England by Charles Knight (1880)
"The first water •pinning mill.—Samuel Crompton.—His Hall-ir,-the-\Vood wheel.known as
the mule —General rush to engage in spinning cotton. ..."
3. Southey's Common-place Book by Robert Southey (1849)
"I SAW a valuable assortment of precious stones at Cambay, belonging to a Persian
nobleman, intended for sale ; among them was a diamond of the first water, ..."
4. Things Chinese: Being Notes on Various Subjects Connected with China by James Dyer Ball (1893)
"Amidst its short, terse, ringing- sentences, flash jewels of the first water,
set in much that is obscure to the foreign reader, who longs to know what this ..."
5. Valentine's Manual of Old New Yorkby New York (N.Y.). Common Council by New York (N.Y.). Common Council (1916)
"... unusual thing for him to visit a firm of jewelers in Maiden Lane and leave
their office with a pocketful of diamonds of the first water. ..."
6. The Popular Science Monthly (1873)
"A diamond is said to be of the first water when it is perfectly limpid and
colorless, and free from flaws, and of the second or third water in proportion as ..."
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