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Blackadder vocabulary
219 vocabulary words, including people, places, music, artists, etc.
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first water
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► definition
Definition:the highest quality or purest luster; -- said of gems, especially of diamond and pearls.Noah Webster. Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1913)---1. The highest quality of gemstones, especially of diamonds and pearls.2 (by extension) Of the highest rank or quality.text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike
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Uses:
she had taken some casual remark by my father, had worked it up delicately, given it a ‘turn,’ a precious title, set in it the gem of a glance from her own eyes, a gem of the first water, blended of humility and gratitude; and so had given it back transformed into a jewel, a work of art, into something altogether charming.
Marcel Proust. In Search of Lost Time [volume 1]
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Blackadder: My lady, about Lord Farrow.
Queen: I've let him off.
Blackadder: No, no, no, no - you can't. He's a complete cad of the first water.
BBC. Blackadder, season 2: Head
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Dave's just an all-round genius—a genius of the first water, gentlemen; a great scientist running to seed here in this village,
Mark Twain. The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson (1894)
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Moreover, though a Buriat chief, he was a most undoubted nobleman: at the Governor's parties he took rank, by patent of the Emperor Nicholas, as a real Russian baron of the first water.
Grant Allen. The Beckoning Hand and Other Stories (1884)
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They would certainly look on me as an ass of the first water
Louis Becke. The Strange Adventure of James Shervinton (1902)
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