noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   A thief or robber on the water, hence, a pirate. archaic, rare
2. 2
   A valve with multiple connections that permits bleeding a large line through several subordinate lines.

Etymology

Etymology 1

From water + thief.

Etymology 2

Calque of Ancient Greek κλεψύδρα (klepsúdra, “pipette”, literally “water-thief”), equivalent to water + thief.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.