water clock

noun

water clock

noun

1

Historical A device for measuring time using water, typically by measuring water flowing in or out of a basin of known size at a known rate.

[O]ur captain, or the juragan, gives the course, guided partly by the compass and partly by the direction of the wind, and a watch of two or three on the poop look after the trimming of the sails and call out the hours by the water-clock. This is a very ingenious contrivance, which measures time well in both rough weather and fine.1869, Alfred Russel Wallace, The Malay Archipelago, volume II, London: Macmillan and Co., page 169:

Synonyms: clepsydra
Hypernyms: clock and chronometer

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