Meaning of first water | Babel Free

Definitions

1. The highest quality of gemstones, especially of diamonds and pearls.
   uncountable
2. The highest rank or quality or the greatest degree.
   broadly, uncountable

Examples

“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.”

“To be the first water a diamond must be absolutely colorless, very lustrous, and perfectly free from flaws.”

““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.’”

“He's a liar, swindler, and hypocrite—a scoundrel of the first water.”

“Dave’s just an all-round genius—a genius of the first water, gentlemen;[…]”

“This was manifestly a prig of the first water, and there was no use arguing with him.”

““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.”

“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.”

CEFR level