Definition of "water-cress" [water-cress]

• A creeping herb of springs and streams, Nasturtium officinale, from antiquity used as a spring salad, and now very widely cultivated. See cress and Nasturtium, (with cut). (noun)

The Century Dictionary (Public Domain)

• "Leavings of dog's flesh, putrid and unsaleable, flung to us by the mocking butchers; MINARI, a water-cress gathered from stagnant pools of slime; spoiled KIMCHI that would revolt the stomachs of peasants and that could be smelled a mile."
• "And when the latter was threatened with extinction, Daylight developed one of the shaded springs into his water-cress garden and declared war upon any invading cattail."
• "Dede, who had a fondness for cattails, established a fringe of them along the meadow stream, where they were left to fight it out with the water-cress."