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wat'ry

Adjective
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

An old poetic spelling of "watery": containing, resembling, or relating to water; often used to evoke a liquid, fluid, or diluted quality in imagery.

Detailed Definition
This is a poetic contraction of watery, a form often found in older verse. It describes something as water-like or belonging to water, here referring to the stream's reflective surface.
Example
Example in poetry:
“Pure-bosom’d as that wat’ry glass, / And heav’n reflected in her face” (Keats, “The Eve of St. Agnes”); “wat’ry” is a poetic contraction of “watery,” often chosen for meter or an older visual texture; Shakespeare frequently uses water imagery for tears, mirrors, and change; a contemporary formal poem might use “wat’ry” to preserve an iambic beat while describing rain-bright streets
Additional Notes
The contracted form "wat'ry" in "Pure-bosom'd as that wat'ry glass," is an older poetic spelling that modern readers may not recognize at first glance.; Found in the poem, To a Young Lady by William Cowper
Also Known As
watery aquatic liquid fluid
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