long drink of water

(dated, slang) The ocean; .

An old and mostly dated American slang expression for the ocean — most often the Atlantic, though the Pacific works too — used with ironic understatement. Calling the vast, unforgiving ocean a 'big drink' is a classic example of deadpan American humor, reducing something massive and dangerous to something casual and domestic. The phrase shows up in old Western stories, sea shanties, and the mouths of characters trying to sound unbothered by whatever lies ahead of them.

(Scotland) A large draught of any liquid.

A Scottish dialectal expression for tea itself, or the water used to make tea. The first sense -- tea as 'tea-water' -- is a colloquial synecdoche, naming the drink after one of its components. The term is informal and distinctly regional. Outside Scotland it would not be understood as a natural way to refer to tea, making it an immediately localizing piece of vocabulary.

A Scottish colloquial term for tea — simple, direct, and very Scottish. Where the English might just say 'a cup of tea', the Scots sometimes reach for 'tea-water', treating the drink as a straightforward compound. It also literally refers to the water used for brewing tea, but in Scottish informal usage, it's just another way of saying you're putting the kettle on.