🚶‍♂️ Water finder 🌱 Divining rod

dowser

1 9.9

A stick with two branches used to find water or minerals underground

noun
/ˈdaʊzər/

: vara de zahorí

Something like the way dowsers find water veins with a forked twig.

Examples

It was dowsers, it was dowsing rods, it was pendulum work.
Many people hire a dowser to locate hidden water sources for their farms.
The dowser walked slowly across the field, watching the forked stick twitch in his hands.
Using a dowser, she was able to find a well on her property that had long been forgotten.

Synonyms

divining rod

vsdowser

2 8.6

A forked stick that people hold to find underground water

is defined by its claimed reaction of dipping or twitching to locate sources

dowsing rod

vsdowser

2 9.8

A forked stick used to try to find underground water or minerals

focuses on the claimed dipping or twitching reaction to indicate presence

waterfinder

vsdowser

Archaic

9.9

A forked stick used to find underground water or oil by dipping down

is described as reacting by dipping or twitching over such sources

water finder

vsdowser

9.4

A forked stick people use to find water or oil underground

emphasizes the claimed physical reaction when held over a source

hydroscope

vsdowser

Specialized

9.9

A tool used to find water under the ground

is the folk tool specifically said to dip or twitch near water

Surface Forms

dowser singular

dowsers plural

Morphology

dowser = dowse (semi-transparent) = dowse + er

Derived from 'dowse' + '-er' but here the result names the instrument (divining rod) rather than the agent, which is a less predictable extension of '-er'.

Etymology

Dowser also names the forked stick or rod used in that practice, often called a 'divining rod'. People once thought the rod would dip or twitch over water, so the tool took the same name as the person who used it.