"first water" meaning in English

{
  "derived": [
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "of the first water"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "The term originated in the gemstone trade, where it was used to signify water-like clarity.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "-"
      },
      "expansion": "first water (uncountable)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "related": [
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "tags": [
        "adjective"
      ],
      "word": "first-degree"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "61 39",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "71 29",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "77 23",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "81 19",
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Gems",
          "orig": "en:Gems",
          "parents": [
            "Jewelry",
            "Mineralogy",
            "Clothing",
            "Geology",
            "Human",
            "Earth sciences",
            "All topics",
            "Sciences",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1854 August 9, Henry D[avid] Thoreau, “The Ponds”, in Walden; or, Life in the Woods, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, →OCLC:",
          "text": "Who knows in how many unremembered nations’ literatures this has been the Castalian Fountain? or what nymphs presided over it in the Golden Age? It is a gem of the first water which Concord wears in her coronet.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1880, HB Cornwall, “Gems and Precious Stones”, in WM Patterson, editor, The Growing world; or, Progress of civilization, and the wonders of nature, science, literature and art, interspersed with a useful and entertaining collection of miscellany, page 20:",
          "text": "To be the first water a diamond must be absolutely colorless, very lustrous, and perfectly free from flaws.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1915, L[ucy] M[aud] Montgomery, Anne of the Island, New York, N.Y.: A[lbert] L[evi] Burt Company, →OCLC:",
          "text": "“Here’s one I wrote. My heroine is disporting herself at a ball ‘glittering from head to foot with large diamonds of the first water.’",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The highest quality of gemstones, especially of diamonds and pearls."
      ],
      "id": "en-first_water-en-noun-en:highest_quality_of_gemstone",
      "links": [
        [
          "quality",
          "quality"
        ],
        [
          "gemstone",
          "gemstone"
        ],
        [
          "diamond",
          "diamond"
        ],
        [
          "pearl",
          "pearl"
        ]
      ],
      "senseid": [
        "en:highest quality of gemstone"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "uncountable"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "He's a liar, swindler, and hypocrite—a scoundrel of the first water.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1897, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], “[Pudd’nhead Wilson] Chapter”, in The Tragedy of Pudd’nhead Wilson: And the Comedy Those Extraordinary Twins, Hartford, Conn.: American Publishing Company, →OCLC, page 135:",
          "text": "Dave’s just an all-round genius—a genius of the first water, gentlemen;[…]",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1897, Bram Stoker, chapter XX, in Dracula, New York, N.Y.: Modern Library, →OCLC:",
          "text": "This was manifestly a prig of the first water, and there was no use arguing with him.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1922, Robert C. Benchley, chapter XXII, in Love Conquers All, Henry Holt & Company, page 111:",
          "text": "“A nice, juicy steak,” he is said to have called for, “French fries, apple pie and a cup of coffee.” It is probable that he really said “a coff of cuppee,” however, as he was a wag of the first water and loved a joke as well as the next king.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1934 February, Cecil J. Allen, “British Locomotive Practice & Performance”, in Railway Magazine, pages 93–94:",
          "text": "Presumably this was another case in which an engine had failed and had been replaced at short notice; certain it is that none but experts of the very first water could have coaxed such amazing work out of an engine of such comparatively small dimensions.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The highest rank or quality or the greatest degree."
      ],
      "id": "en-first_water-en-noun-en:highest_rank_or_greatest_degree",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(by extension) The highest rank or quality or the greatest degree."
      ],
      "senseid": [
        "en:highest rank or greatest degree"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "broadly",
        "uncountable"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "first water"
}

{
  "categories": [
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English nouns",
    "English uncountable nouns",
    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries",
    "en:Gems"
  ],
  "derived": [
    {
      "word": "of the first water"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "The term originated in the gemstone trade, where it was used to signify water-like clarity.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "-"
      },
      "expansion": "first water (uncountable)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "related": [
    {
      "tags": [
        "adjective"
      ],
      "word": "first-degree"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1854 August 9, Henry D[avid] Thoreau, “The Ponds”, in Walden; or, Life in the Woods, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, →OCLC:",
          "text": "Who knows in how many unremembered nations’ literatures this has been the Castalian Fountain? or what nymphs presided over it in the Golden Age? It is a gem of the first water which Concord wears in her coronet.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1880, HB Cornwall, “Gems and Precious Stones”, in WM Patterson, editor, The Growing world; or, Progress of civilization, and the wonders of nature, science, literature and art, interspersed with a useful and entertaining collection of miscellany, page 20:",
          "text": "To be the first water a diamond must be absolutely colorless, very lustrous, and perfectly free from flaws.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1915, L[ucy] M[aud] Montgomery, Anne of the Island, New York, N.Y.: A[lbert] L[evi] Burt Company, →OCLC:",
          "text": "“Here’s one I wrote. My heroine is disporting herself at a ball ‘glittering from head to foot with large diamonds of the first water.’",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The highest quality of gemstones, especially of diamonds and pearls."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "quality",
          "quality"
        ],
        [
          "gemstone",
          "gemstone"
        ],
        [
          "diamond",
          "diamond"
        ],
        [
          "pearl",
          "pearl"
        ]
      ],
      "senseid": [
        "en:highest quality of gemstone"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "uncountable"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English terms with usage examples"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "He's a liar, swindler, and hypocrite—a scoundrel of the first water.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1897, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], “[Pudd’nhead Wilson] Chapter”, in The Tragedy of Pudd’nhead Wilson: And the Comedy Those Extraordinary Twins, Hartford, Conn.: American Publishing Company, →OCLC, page 135:",
          "text": "Dave’s just an all-round genius—a genius of the first water, gentlemen;[…]",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1897, Bram Stoker, chapter XX, in Dracula, New York, N.Y.: Modern Library, →OCLC:",
          "text": "This was manifestly a prig of the first water, and there was no use arguing with him.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1922, Robert C. Benchley, chapter XXII, in Love Conquers All, Henry Holt & Company, page 111:",
          "text": "“A nice, juicy steak,” he is said to have called for, “French fries, apple pie and a cup of coffee.” It is probable that he really said “a coff of cuppee,” however, as he was a wag of the first water and loved a joke as well as the next king.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1934 February, Cecil J. Allen, “British Locomotive Practice & Performance”, in Railway Magazine, pages 93–94:",
          "text": "Presumably this was another case in which an engine had failed and had been replaced at short notice; certain it is that none but experts of the very first water could have coaxed such amazing work out of an engine of such comparatively small dimensions.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The highest rank or quality or the greatest degree."
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(by extension) The highest rank or quality or the greatest degree."
      ],
      "senseid": [
        "en:highest rank or greatest degree"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "broadly",
        "uncountable"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "first water"
}