Lording Barry, "Ram-Alley, or Merrie Trickes" (1611):

"Con[stantia,disguised as a man]. Now I will fall a boord the wating maide.

Adr[iana]. Fall a boord of me, dost take me for a ship.

Con. I ["Aye"]. And will shoote you betwixt wind and water.

Adr. Blurt [a sound of contempt made with the lips] maister gunner your linstock's too short."


There was another sense as well, first defined by "The Dictionary of the Canting Crew" (1698-1699) as "Shot twixt wind and water. Clapt, or Poxt."

Francis Beaumont, "Phylaster" IV i (1611): He lookes like an olde surfeited stallion after his leaping,...: see how he sinckes, the wench has shot him betweene wind and water, and I hope sprung a lake.

Sir John Denham, "Poems" (1668): "You have been an old Fornicater, / And now are shot 'twixt wind and Water.”