DCHP-3

dead water(s)

[trans. of Cdn F eaux mortes]
DCHP-1 (pre-1967)

Entry from the DCHP-1 (pre-1967)

This entry may contain outdated or offensive information, terms, and examples.

a region characterized by sluggish, muddy streams, marsh, muskeg, etc.; also, the sluggish streams and ponds found there.

Quotations

1793
Above the portage des Chiens we entered the Lac des Chaudiers[,] a piece of dead water. . . .
1804
After breakfast we walked up to the dead water -- met a canoe with 4 men a little above the paresseux from Lac des Chiens.
1872
In summer time they hang about the neighbourhood of muddy lakes and sluggish brooks -- called "dead waters" to which they repair. . . .
1953
Their strategy was to let the herd work north . . . toward a swamp country known as the Eaux Mortes or Dead Waters. In that maze of muskeg and boggy streams, a hundred warriors summoned from the camps could slaughter the herd to the last hoof.