watered

1. 1
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of water.

   The farmer watered his fields at dawn.

   After the seeds were watered, they began to sprout.

   Note

   One spelling does double duty here. It is the past tense (she watered the roses) and the past participle, which follows have in the perfect and be in the passive. Most senses of the verb are transitive, such as watering plants, giving livestock a drink, or diluting something, so the participle goes passive easily. The intransitive 'take in water' cannot. The same spelling also serves as the adjective meaning 'supplied with water'.

2. 2
   adjective

   Provided with a supply of water.

   A well watered valley supported rich farmland for centuries.

   The horses returned to the stable, fed and watered for the night.

   Oppositearid, dry, parched

   Note

   An adjective with its own long pedigree: Middle English watered, from a reconstructed Old English *ġewæterod, kin to German bewässert and Dutch verwaterd. It likes company. Horses are fed and watered, and land is well watered, a phrase usually hyphenated before a noun (a well-watered valley). It is gradable, too, so one valley can be more watered than another.

3. 3
   adjective

   Marked with wavy, shimmering lines resembling those made by water.

   Like the shifting bands of light on a wind-rippled lake.

   The seamstress selected a watered silk whose surface rippled like the face of a pond.

   Collectors prize the watered pattern on antique Damascus blades.

   Similarwavy

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