Watery describes something that contains too much water or looks and feels like water. When soup is watery, it's thin and weak instead of rich and flavorful. A watery hot chocolate disappoints because it tastes more like brown water than the creamy, chocolatey drink you expected.

Eyes become watery when they're irritated or when someone is about to cry, filling with extra moisture that might spill over as tears. A watery smile looks weak and uncertain, like someone trying to be cheerful when they're actually sad or worried.

The word often carries a sense of disappointment or weakness. Watery paint spreads too thin on paper. Watery sunlight filters weakly through clouds on a gray day, barely warming anything. When a teacher gives a watery excuse for canceling a field trip, it sounds unconvincing and halfhearted.

Sometimes watery simply means containing water without any negative feeling: a watery habitat is just a place where water is the main feature, like a marsh or pond where frogs and fish live.