As designating a commodity or a subject of ownership, this term has the same meaning in law as in common speech; hut in another sense, and especially in the plural, it may designate a body of water, such as a river, a lake, or an ocean, or an aggregate of such bodies of water, as in the phrases “foreign waters,” “waters of the United States," and the like
Source: Black's Law Dictionary 2nd Ed (1910)
